Beholden
by ElfChef
Summary: It's hard being a telepathic barmaid but Sookie Stackhouse can't complain. She has a nice life in her small town. It all goes up in smoke when a fairy blackmails her onto marrying a vampire. A vampire that could care less who she is or what she feels. Watch their unlikely story unfold. This isn't an easy love story but then again love and life seldom are.
1. Chapter 1

**A short introduction into 'Beholden':**

Being a telepathic barmaid is hard enough. Sookie Stackhouse doesn't complain though. She has a normal life in her small town. It goes up in smoke when a fairy blackmails her into marrying a vampire; an alpha werewolf will stop at nothing to have her as the shaman for his pack; and then she falls in love with a weretiger. If that's not enough, extremists are trying to kill her. So yeah, the woman's got problems.

"While her obedience is a must agreement is not." Typical words of the worlds richest man, Eric Northman. He is a vampire with a slighter darker past than your average undead. For political purposes he requires a bride. Attachment and love and not things he feels, not for her. She has a part to play, nothing more; nothing less. Not an easy love story but then again love and life seldom are.

This fic is about walking the path to happiness and how it will often test your character, pit your mind against your heart, and force you to look between who you are and who you want to be.

Leave all your canon stuff at the door before you read this fic. I took a little bit of this and that to make the characters we know and love who they are, but there are differences, big ones. If you start reading while looking for things to compare and contrast to the book and Tru Blood…there'll be too many to count (I wanted to spare you the time)*

**Eric**

**Chapter I**

Over the years work has brought me to almost every corner of the world. Lately with the advancements in technology and modernization, I just had to keep a few key locations in the major cities of the world. On a personal level the silence of anything less made it hard to focus. I needed the chaos of the outside world to fuel my mind. In the past a larger population was a must. It was necessary to offer ample food and cover. With the Great Reveal things had gotten easier in terms of movement. Unfortunately things were much harder on the business end.

Eric Northman is my name and making money is an art form that I have perfected. A financial analyst recently calculated that I made a hundred thousand dollars every minute from first dark to dawn. It meant that with all my investments combined in the old world and the new I made over seventy million dollars a night before routine losses, taxes, and expenses.

If I was the actual twenty-five years of age I appeared to be that would be impressive. Seeing I was over a thousand years old it was less remarkable. Many vampires my age were royals and had focused a great deal of time and energy shoring up their power to rule. My father ruled our clan when I was human so I knew what it was to rule. Be it a tribe or a kingdom, the price was the same and I wanted no part of it. I preferred investing my time into something that was mine and mine alone.

I had created an empire of sorts. It wasn't one of servants and knights. It was business, clear and simple. I'd been steadily building it for five hundred years. The major venues I owned were banks and aviation. They had figureheads that I chose. Those corporate institutes broke down into hundreds of different companies and subsidiaries, some local and others were international. I oversaw them all. It wasn't a small feat and I'd needed countless fake names and identities to maintain my hold over the ages. If I thought maintaining it was hard, consolidating the disparate holdings was a nightmare.

Case in point: I was in Washington, DC and I had a full posse of government officials up my ass. In attendance at this meeting was the commissioner of the IRS. Sitting beside the good commissioner was the director of the Federal bureau of investigations. There was also the liaison for human-vampire affairs sent from the cabinet of the President. Beside that elderly man was the mayor. Spanning out on both sides were lawyers and legal aids. At their backs was a barrage of federal agents with itchy trigger fingers.

"Throughout the economic crisis," one of the tax lawyers began, "UBS posted no losses but had millions in unpaid mortgages, properties that should have gone into foreclosure but didn't, giving your bank and its subsidiaries an unfair advantage."

All eyes on the other side of the table came to me. I said nothing. I sat with my fingers steepled under my chin and listened intently as my lawyers ripped theirs apart. The governments' problem was that legally they couldn't keep me from merging all my businesses into one and they wanted to stop me. If I had my way, which I knew I would, I would be wealthiest man in this country and many others.

Having a vampire with that much power was what they feared. Was their fear understandable? Absolutely. Was it warranted? Not in the least. There was no way I could sell that point so here I was willing submitting to their blind fishing expedition. So far I was accused of a violating Sherman Antitrust laws in several markets, tax evasion, and falsifying legal documents a hundred times over. But they had nothing on me and we all knew it.

To begin with, I paid taxes on both sides of the Atlantic. I had a vampire on staff who knew the tax laws better than any person seated across from me. I also had documents that went back to when their grandparents were in diapers. The falsification of documents charge was more bullshit. All vampires thirty years into their undead life were guilty of the same thing. As far as the antitrust laws, I'd sold enough shares in the proper venues to avoid it when it came into effect. What I didn't sell I'd halved and gave to my child to hold. She was in Canada where she was loved and idolized by the humans there and so they could kiss her ass. "This is the last meeting," my lawyer concluded, closing his briefcase.

Cataliades was a daemon attorney. If any being nonhuman needed to wade through any legal field, be it the human world or not, he was the one to go to. It was a testament to how much trouble he had encountered because he had to call in his aides. Bureaucratic red tape stonewalled any move I wanted to make.

"We have been cooperative with this investigation but now it borders on harassment. Anything further will require a federal warrant." Yes, I'd say. They had stooped to questioning the legalities of me not deciding to put human families out on the street? I would love for human media to get a hold of that one.

"What does he have to hide?" one of the armed guards asked. "We don't have to allow your kind any rights but we do. Never forget that this is our country no matter how much of it you can buy. It will always belong to us."

I wasn't sure if he thought if he was being patriotic, intimidating, or both. He failed miserably in either endeavor. The only thing he succeeded in doing was making an ass of himself. If not for my irritation I wouldn't have responded. Such as it was I obliged him though I didn't look his way.

"I'm a thousand years old, Agent Latestta," I replied in a bored monotone. "Believe me when I tell you there is a reason why you'll always be holding the gun but never get an invitation to sit at the table."

He wasn't a forward thinker. Any idiot with an ounce of finesses would know that while not letting me have my way would be great, it shouldn't come at the expense of me leaving. It was a delicate situation for both parties. If I left this country I would take my money with me and it wouldn't benefit anyone as it was currently doing. I rose and with a nod of my head at the proper people I exited with my entourage in tow.

"Can they get a warrant to slow things down?" I asked my lawyer.

He shook his head. "Not legally," he said.

"Consolidate the identities and assets on your end," I said as we drove to the airport.

That process had been gradual as to show the government we were willing to cooperate. We were past the point of cooperation and well into wasting my time. I refused to allow that.

"I suggest speaking to Pamela's publicist, Gabby Snow" he continued. "No one can run a popularity contest like she can. You need the masses to love you if you're going to pick a fight with their government."

The idea of being in the spot light didn't appeal but I saw the wisdom in it. I also witnessed it in Canada. It was where I'd been holed up with my child Pam since before the great reveal. Pam lived like a rock star there. She loved the attention and people loved her. It made her life a whole lot easier and offered her an additional layer of protection.

"I'll call." I said resigning myself to it.

I was at the point where my money made itself, all I had to do was manage it. That wasn't what I wanted. It was necessary at the moment. If I wanted to be left in peace during my future endeavors I had to make a few things happen. First, I had to appease the government in this country. At least for a while, I would play nice and Gabby Snow would help. Secondly, I needed a place that was away from both Pam and Illeta. A major city was out of the question, at least for a while. I needed low key. I needed a vampire royal who was stable and looking to offer me a place outside their political circle. I would openly mainstream to show I had nothing to hide.

Seeing I'd set my eyes on the south I had to pay the toll. You could have more money than Croesus but it wouldn't matter if you went around stepping on toes. While I wasn't a vampire royal, I was a vampire and knew to mind my manners if I was stomping around someone's turf. My propriety saved me the hassle when I travelled from state to state.

The person at the gate in Oklahoma was a sandy haired vampire by the name of Freyda, the vampire queen. Oklahoma was south central and therefore not a part of the Amun vampire territories of the New World. It was a division of Zeus and from what I gathered that territory was collectively stronger and so would be more stable in the long run. I went to her first.

"Eric," she greeted with a nod of her head, "You are most welcome."

"Thank you." My nod was a bit deeper than hers as a show of respect.

After the preliminary bullshit I got to the point. "I seek residence in your state, I wish to mainstream."

There was no emotion on her face but I knew whatever else she thought I was here for it wasn't that. "That is one way to supplant your problem with the government," she said. "Marriage to me is another."

I left Oklahoma disappointed even though I had known there was a chance of her proposing. The thing that I hadn't expected was for her to turn down my counteroffer without pause. There was no more love in a royal vampire marriage than there was in a chess match. It all boiled down to out-maneuvering your spouse because the terms were never entirely secure. Meaning, one would benefit if the other died. These unions often ended in bloodshed. I loved the mere idea as much as any other vampire but it wasn't what I needed at the moment. It was Freyda's loss because I still had another option.

Bobby Burnham was my personal assistant. My previous assistant had been with me for fifty years. Before he retired he recommended Bobby. I was still getting used to him but I had no complaints about his performance. He was smart and efficient and was good at nonverbal cues. He was also able to travel at a moment's notice. When I rose he was waiting with a blood of Royalty Blend in one hand and a laptop in the other. He rattled off messages as I drank and went over stock reports for the day as I dressed.

Thanks to the great reveal I could travel safely during the day and not lose time. I was in New Orleans to see the queen of Louisiana. I was optimistic that I would get my way. Sophie-Anne had been eager to meet me and I knew she preferred women almost exclusively.

"We have to be in New York," he reminded me as I prepared to disembark.

I nodded. "Tell the pilot to refuel. I'll be gone no more than an hour."I left Montreal this afternoon. I woke in Louisiana, midnight would find me in New York then I'd be in Ontario before dawn. My itinerary for the evening was fairly light.

The only people that went with me were my bodyguards Batanya and Clovache. They were Britlingens, daemons from another dimension. They were expensive to summon and to keep them as long I've had them was bordering on figures that were obscene. It was worth it. One of their kind was extremely hard to kill and they saw through many forms of physical glamour. They also had several nasty tricks of their own. I'd contracted a dozen but these two interacted easiest with the world at large so they were my personal guards.

"I need you to be unseen," I told them.

"That might tempt someone," Batanya observed.

"We can only hope," Clovache mused darkly.

I rolled my eyes. They didn't see much action with me. At the most they got a sparring match with each other. For a species born to fight, this assignment was their longest and most unfulfilling. It couldn't have been all that bad because every year when the renegotiations came up, they stayed.

Almost two hours later I was less than pleased as I boarded the aircraft again.

"Bobby," I said.

"Yes sir."

"Call Alexander, I want to see him. I don't care where or how but I want to see him before I leave New York this evening."

Bobby simply nodded and walked away to make the call.


	2. Chapter 2

**Eric**

**Chapter II**

The meeting with the queen of Louisiana had been very much like the one I had with Freyda, too much alike in fact. Wanting to marry me for my name and wealth was one thing but this seemed off. I was an asset financially but surely some of me was better than none. Then again, they knew about my issues with the human government. They might have deemed the risk of scrutiny from unwanted eyes too great and marriage was their price. Plausible, but not likely. I was frustrated.

Nothing I could come up with seemed like strong enough of a motivator for both Freyda and Sophie-Anne to refuse. There was something else, something major that I was missing. I didn't keep up to date on vampire politics. It was too fickle a thing and didn't much affect me as I had sworn fealty to no one. Now, it was proving to be a pain in my immortal ass. Times like these killing people that annoyed me was tempting, but I refrained.

I didn't have all the pieces to make the best available decision, whatever the solution turned out to be it wouldn't be marriage. Even if by some measure of insanity I decided to wed, the negotiations for such a thing took years, time I didn't currently have to spare. I'd been in limbo and it had long begun to grate on me. I'd been based in Canada for two years and was using my jet the way most people used a car. It wasn't just the traveling. The laws in Canada didn't allow me to do much while I was there because I wasn't a citizen nor did I want to be.

Bobby hadn't been able to confirm Alexander's presence at any point during our flight. But I saw the Grecian vampire leaning causally against the car that had been awaiting me. He looked as all vampires did, stoic bordering on statue like. He wasn't alone. Wrapped comfortably in his arms was a human infant. It was covered in a pink paisley blanket and was fast asleep.

The older I got the more I understood anomalous behavior. Still, I didn't even pretend to understand the life Alexander led but it didn't matter. He was great at his job. He watched over the major venues I owned in this state. It wasn't a small task but despite the preoccupations with his personal life he did an excellent job of it all. In addition to that I valued his input, intelligence, and stable disposition.

"Alexander," I greeted with a nod of my head. "I'm sorry. I wouldn't have insisted had it not been urgent."

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't already know that," he said with a smile and a nod of his head. "So what's on fire?"

I explained and he wasn't at all surprised. "I know," he said. "I assumed you did as well. They had a summit ten or so years ago. You and Illeta were a major subject of discussion. None have forgotten the old days and they fear its return."

I hadn't contemplated that angle because it seemed so asinine. I would have thought vampires knew better but apparently not. I rolled my eyes. "If we desired chaos we would have never put an end to it."

"The humans fear your wealth and the power it brings. The vampires fear the same but they know your past." he said. "Illeta is west, Pam is now north—"

"Illeta I can see," I interrupted. "But Pam is playing dress up," she was very young and threat to no one. She was building a fashion line. She spent more time with human models and designers than she did with vampires or anyone else.

"And now you want the south," he said. "With none of you tied to any of them…" He shrugged while adjusting the child in his arms. "It just looks bad."

For a few blocks through the brightly lit streets of the city I was quiet trying to think through this wrinkle in my plans.

"I assumed you had a son?" I said inclining my head to the infant. "Why do you call her Andy?"

He smiled. "It's a nickname I detest but it stuck. Her mother doesn't call her by her full name, Andromeda."

"How is Rebecca by the way?" I asked thinking of his human wife. I'd met her once, didn't have notice her enough to have an opinion on her. I found her as unremarkable as every other woman. I had no idea what Alexander saw in her or how she was able to put a leash on a vampire of his stature.

"Tired," he replied with a slight smile.

~oooooo~

The interview and photo shoot with 'Time' Magazine tried my patience. Coming out as the vampire mogul with a heart of gold had been Gabby's strategy. Sure I gave to charity but I was forced to remember which ones. I needed to be relatable to women and men of all classes. It would better serve as a buffer from the human government. Also public approval would be beneficial for certain venues I wanted to pursue in the future. I swallowed, grinned, and bore it because I had bigger problems.

The conversation with Alexander was churning in my mind as I boarded my jet out of New York several hours later. There was a clear consensus with all the regents in the four territories to box me in. While there were many that would be willing to enter a marriage with me, none would allow me to relocate to their state without it.

I was old enough to rule and I had amassed enough wealth to usurp any state I coveted. Not having done so was making my kind wary. When they weren't trying to end one another for power they were unified in upholding the need for the hierarchy. My terminal lack of attachment was viewed as a threat. Sooner or later they would feel the need to do something about it.

I wasn't worried exactly. I really just didn't want the hassle of having to kill anyone. I also knew I wouldn't be the only target if fighting broke out. Illeta had taken a vow of nonviolence some centuries ago. Knowing what had brought that drastic change about I would never ask her to violate it for me though I knew she would. Of the dozen who had come and gone at the hands of our maker only the two of us remained. Contrary to what the vampire world thought, Illeta wasn't my child. She was my sister and two hundred years my elder.

It was Pam I was worried about. She was centuries younger and I never trained her to be warrior. On a deeper level I felt like I would taint her by placing swords in her hands. I never even showed her how to survive in the wild. I'd always been there and when I wasn't I afforded her the best protection. She didn't know what it was like to not have her way or to move with caution. Since the night she rose to this life I've indulged her to the point of spoiling her.

There was an air of adventurousness in my only child that had drawn me to her the night I made her. After almost two centuries in the night it still endured. She possessed a sense of enthusiasm about the way she viewed the world. Time and the bleakness of eternity had not yet robbed her of it. It was one the many things I loved about her.

The last thing I wanted was to be labeled persona non grata amongst the undead. By the time I was in Canadian airspace I had accepted that marrying was inevitable. Prolonging it would only make the situation worse. It was now a matter of choosing the most suitable bride.

"Eric,"

I heard the voice long before my coffin was opened just before dark. I knew who it was. Vampires, when they were first made went instantly dead with the rise of the sun. As we got older we could fight the pull. It was still hell on our bodies to be awake. With prolonged sleep deprivation we suffered bleeds and weakened with the blood loss. For some reason I couldn't understand, Pam had her guards wake her an hour before dark.

"I know you're awake," Pam said lifting my lids.

"No I'm not," I replied swatting blindly at her. "Go away. I could swear I had bodyguards to prevent this sort of thing."

She laughed, "I've missed you," she said resting her head on my chest.

"Why are you awake?" I mumbled wrapping my arm around her.

"I'm having relationship issues," she said.

Despite myself I laughed. Pam fell in love every other week and it always ended the same way. She got bored. By her soft features and dainty frame she was the picture of the hopeless romantic. Nothing could be farther from the truth. She was a young vampire and had stamina that she liked to put to the test as often as she could.

While we lived together, our schedules rarely agreed. I couldn't recall the last time I saw her face. Having no other choice and generally missing her company, I rose. Pam and I fed. Regardless of the propaganda, vampires didn't prefer bottled blood. It sustained, but nothing ever tasted as good as drinking warm blood from a pulsing vein. While that was most appealing to the pallet it took longer than I liked to spend feeding. I found a happy medium in Royalty Blend. It was part synthetic and part human blood.

After listening to a ridiculous but comical break up story, we got to work. I helped her with her tasks of the evening because it was easier for me. I'd been doing it longer. For a while she had been my second in command. Back then she would have sworn she did all my work but now she knew she had been only doing the minimum that would prep her for her own work load. We actually talked and I explained my current situation. We both concluded that it was slightly worse than her issues with her recently discarded lover.

"Marry whoever," she said shrugging her shoulders. "Then we kill her and you remarry who you choose and name them regent," she concluded, brushing her palms in the gesture that signaled the end of the issue. "They keep the state and you come and go as you please."

I shook my head. It wasn't that I was opposed to the idea of killing one royal; I'd kill as many as I needed to in order to maintain my freedom. I simply wasn't sure it would definitively solve the issue; in truth it might exacerbate it. Plus fighting and killing wasn't what I did, not anymore. I'd long ago made the choice to handle things in as civilized a manner as I could afford. If I killed each and every competitor I'd ever had it would be a very lonely world.

"The only ones I would marry would be you or Leta. Leta is safe because she was grandfathered into California before the division of territories. Plus I'm pretty sure that would make things worse. So, my love that leaves you," I said with a taunting smile.

My child shot me a look of poorly veiled horror. I chuckled at her expression. She didn't look like a century old vampire. She looked nineteen and disgusted. If I was averse to marriage then Pam might as well be deathly allergic.

"Okay," she concluded. "We'll keep thinking."

I bet. I rolled my eyes derisively but otherwise made no comment. For a few seconds Pam drummed her fingers on her chin.

"Maybe a new changeling or a mainstreamer with no sire," she looked up from a spread sheet that spanned two computer monitors.

I caught on almost immediately. "I have to marry to settle in the state I want but it doesn't have to be a regent or a vampire even," I mused, following her train of thought.

There was a mischievous grin on her face. "And you guys say I'm not devious," she inserted smugly.

Another eye roll. "Technically I could marry the first human I saw in Oklahoma as long as she was born in that state under the rule of the current vampire regent." That law was very outdated but it hadn't changed as far as I knew. It would solve my problem.

"So you have decided on Freyda's kingdom?" she asked.

I nodded. "I think in the long run it will serve me best."

She pulled out her phone and sent out a text. "I'll check with the lawyers and scribes of the Pythoness."

Marrying just anyone meant I could control them. It didn't come with the benefit of any clout but it didn't come with risk either. Ideally, I needed an alliance with someone that had fighting power but was known for peace. It would ease the worries of the regents that I wasn't out for conquest. The answer came to me as I was retiring for the day. I could do scores better than a plain human.

The Sky Prince of the Fae had once asked me for a favor. He'd refused to specify so I told him I'd think about it. Three hundred years later I was still thinking about it. What he wanted no doubt constituted some risk on my part. He hadn't been worth the risk then, but he might be now.


	3. Chapter 3

**Eric**

**Chapter III**

I'd sent Bobby in search of Niall and it didn't take long to set up a meeting. It would be easy if he would use a phone and save me a trip but the Sky Prince chose a restaurant on the West coast. It was his first available time to meet, so I took it. I knew I would have some trouble getting into the area and I wasn't wrong. The first indicator that I was going to have a confrontation with someone from the vampire king of Los Angeles was the length of time it took me to clear security.

Under normal circumstances I was waved forward, my guards simply slid past undetected and that was that. The stalling at security allowed for Sarah, the lieutenant of Los Angeles, to meet me at the airport.

"Eric," she greeted. She was standing casually in front of the car that was meant for me. I knew she wasn't alone. In the crowded airport parking lot there were four vampires spread strategically about. Batanya and Clovache made their presence known. It drew them all out into the open and there were ten of them total.

"Sheriff," I greeted. I was irritated but it didn't show in my tone or my body language. "You are here to waste more of my time with a very lengthy recitation of the areas rules, I presume?"

Sarah shrugged, "That was the plan. Since you know that the longest version would still get you out of here in time for whatever has brought you west."

"Ah…so you'll also insist that I repeat said rules just so you can be certain I understand them?"

Another shrug, "Yeah, after which I am to invite you to spend the day at royal court."

"That seems counterproductive," I observed.

Another shrug of her dainty shoulders, "Orders of his Majesty."

I got into my car and she followed. True to what she'd said I was detained for an hour listening to bullshit. She did spare me the trouble of having to repeat what we both knew I understood. It was partly because of my growing irritation in this closed space and I suspected the twitchy fingers of my bodyguards didn't help either.

"By the way, how is Illeta?" she asked nonchalantly.

I looked up from my phone then with a questioning glance. For one thing Illeta resided close to her area so if she really wanted to know she could find out with ease. As far as I knew she was not someone she dealt with. They also weren't friends. I interpreted her words as a threat. It didn't seem logical considering who Illeta was. Anyone that would directly threaten either of us had to be looking to unleash hell on earth.

"I know that Ramon did not ask you to threaten me," I was genuinely curious. "Did he?" Maybe he had it had after all been brought to my attention that I was giving my kind too much credit in terms of intelligence.

"No," she said with a nod of her head. "Still thought I'd ask." With that she exited the vehicle and I was finally free to go.

The car was pulling out of LAX. Thoughts of Illeta were still on my mind. It has been almost twenty years since I actually saw her. Technology was allowing us to be further apart but remain in touch when needed. I wasn't worried about her per se. I just didn't know the workings of the area in which she lived. I called her assistant.

"Can Leta see me tonight?" I asked.

"Good evening Mr. Northman," Marcus said. "I will be happy to help with that if I can." There were a few moments where I heard him breathing and tapping at the keys of his keyboard. "I am sorry sir, she cannot. Perhaps she will be willing to cancel…"

"That is not necessary," I said. "I was in the area, that's all."

I didn't think any more on the words of the sheriff. The restaurant that Niall had specified came into view. It was tucked into a nice corner just off Hollywood Boulevard. There was nothing that told me why he chose this location. It didn't look as though it served blood or anything fairies favored—whatever that might be.

While they lived a very long time Fae were not immortal. Niall was my age from what I could gather, which meant he could very well be older. He looked to be of seventy human years. The marker of age was punctuated by an elegantly embossed cane that rested against his left leg. He, like me, was dressed in an immaculately cut suit. We both had blonde hair that was worn longer than that of most men of this time but that was it for similarities.

"Norseman," he said with a nod of his head when I took a seat.

"Sky Prince," I greeted.

He looked on either side of me and I knew he sensed the presence of the guards just as they had sensed the ward that quartered off this section of the restaurant. If not for the Britlingens I would not have been able to sense where he was. The ward also prevented me from catching his scent, which was good. Vampires were as fatal to fairies as a drunk was to a bottle of premium alcohol.

"You reached a decision," he prompted, as if this conversation hadn't suffered a three hundred year lapse.

People thought vampires were bad. It was because few had tangled with a fairy. Anger a vampire and you were liable to be bitten. With fairies anything could happen. They might gift you with a pair of shoes that made you the best dancer in the world. They wouldn't tell you the shoes were stuck to your feet and you were probably going to be dancing until your legs were reduced to stumps.

The best way to handle a fairy wasn't to force a yes or no answer. They were good at addressing those. I used oblique open ended statements to cover as many bases as possible. Niall knew this about me and it dragged out our conversations, turning them into verbal chess matches.

"It is tentative upon an explanation," I replied.

"I covet your name," he said.

"There are things you want from me other than my name."

"Your wealth and status," he replied without pause. His face didn't change from the speculative expression he wore while shuffling beets around his plate. "I find that for a creature my age I don't have many friends. A concept you understand. In short, an alliance in blood between you and me."

His words had just made up for the hassle that this entire trip has been. He wanted an alliance. While I didn't need the power that came from one I did want a wife that had some power of her own. With this I was getting the only thing I cared about. Anything else would be a bonus. I now had an advantage, at least it appeared so. Good as I was I would never fool myself into thinking he didn't have something to gain outside what he stated but I didn't have all night to pry.

"The alliance is agreeable to me but it will not be in blood," I said. "But in marriage, if that can be settled then we may discuss what I desire in return."

We exchanged nods as I rose to my feet. He didn't answer but I hadn't expected him to. I was exiting the booth with him still poking curiously at his beets.

My next stop that evening was Minnesota where I had an appointment with the Ancient Pythoness. Using the word appointment might not have been apropos. She had summoned me after my inquiry into the old law. She was the one vampire I couldn't afford to piss off. I needed her backing and so I was on my best behavior when I arrived at her lodge style home on the shores of Lake Superior. She was on her porch in a rocking chair staring at the driveway. She looked deceptively frail with her mane of wispy white hair and pale, unseeing eyes.

"There are many grievances against you," she began before I even greeted her. That wasn't at all a good sign. "How do you plead?" she continued.

"Am I on trial?" I asked calmly.

"Would you prefer to be?" she said turning her head to me.

"No, your grace that is not my preference," I replied bowing.

I didn't raise my head until she motioned me forward. It didn't bear wondering how she knew my head was bowed. Wordlessly, I took the vacant seat beside her.

"I know nothing of these grievances. I have committed no offense." I told her.

She said nothing as she continued to gaze out into the night. The silence between us was broken by the sound of her rocking in the chair. It felt alien to simply be doing nothing but burn moonlight but that was what I did. I knew better than to speak out of turn. I already had two strikes in her book before I arrived.

"You ask me for something that I cannot give," she finally said. "I do not have such power."

"Respectfully, I disagree. I ask you to enforce the laws and customs of our kind," I replied respectfully. "That and that alone is your charge."

"Death walks soundly at your side Erick. Misery, suffering and pain shadow your steps and taint your every word. Everything you touch, you destroy."

I knew my reputation. I'd created it. I'd lived it and I'd survived it. She might be psychic but all she was doing was telling me my past. If she was looking to impress or shake me she failed. Sure I lived forever but I didn't want the end of time to find me here. But out of respect I swallowed my impatience. It took a few more moments but she got back on topic.

"Forcing a royal to allow you residence in their state knowing they have just cause to shun you, such a thing seems punitive to whomever you choose," she continued.

"Dura lex, sed lex." I said, fighting the urge to shrug as to display my inconsequence.

The royals that were worried about me setting up shop in their territory should have spent the last summit discussing that law and other important matters instead of Leta and me. I was working within legal perimeters and if they didn't like it was their problem.

"Very well," she said with a nod. "In this matter the law is on your side."

~00000~

"This came for you," Bobby said holding out a manila envelope.

The parcel reeked of fairy. Batanya intercepted it and after a quick but thorough inspection she opened and handed it to me. Thankfully the first page listed a phone number. That would save me some hassle in future communiqués with Niall. The rest of binder held pictures, names, and demographic information on available young women.

"Do you maybe want to be alone while you do this?" Clovache asked.

I rolled my eyes. "No and could you two please," I said, passing him the folder. I didn't have to see their faces. "Pick out any that were born in Oklahoma, Texas, or Louisiana."

I returned to my computer. The end of the quarter meant scrutinizing statements of over a dozen corporate accounts. I didn't have the time but it needed to be done now. Just before dawn I had all the prospects narrowed down to four women. I tried to look at them subjectively as a man looked at a woman but I felt nothing. They all were part fairy and so held more allure than most mundane humans. That might be something to look forward to but I couldn't drum up anything akin to desire.

I couldn't believe the lengths I was going through for peace. Becoming a public figure was a source of annoyance but marriage was another. It was as far as I was willing to go though. Anything more and I would give these regents reason to fear me, not my past and name alone.

"Send this to Lilly and Bard Reeds," I said passing Bobby the finalists. "I want to know everything about them and everyone around them."

Once I got the results of background checks back from the best investigators in the country I would make my decision. That was the easy part but with any luck the negotiations wouldn't take too long. Then I could be left in peace by both vampires and humans to conduct my affairs.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sookie **

**Chapter IV**

Some days being a waitress wasn't all that bad. Holidays were great because people were in good spirits. It showed in their tips, their patience with service, and their friendly smiles. Other times waiting tables was exactly what it was cracked up to be, difficult and thankless. Those same patrons who had smiled and made small talk one day were mean as rattlesnakes the next.

I heard their snide remarks, both verbal and nonverbal. I swallowed it with a grain of salt. Society didn't prosecute people for what they thought but only for what they did. It wasn't their fault and in their defense they didn't know I was a telepath. Lucky for me I'd been doing this long enough not to take any of it personally. It just went with the territory.

Today wasn't a good or bad day, it was just an extremely long one. My feet hurt. I smelled like beer and mustard and I was pretty sure there was a peanut in my shoe. I didn't care, I was coming off my third double shift in as many days. I was so tired I felt like I could sleep with my eyes open.

I didn't make much but the little I did was enough to pay my bills. It wasn't enough to patch my pitted driveway. But with every double I worked I was inching one step closer to that goal. This year the family home I'd inherited would get the kitchen it deserved. The Stackhouse farmhouse began as nothing more than a two bedroom home a distant patriarch of the Stackhouse's had built.

Over time it had been added to and modernized. There was now an upstairs that was more or less finished. It might not be a fancy but it was home. More importantly the mortgage was paid. Thank goodness, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to make ends meet. Hell, I was barely able to get my ends to wave hello from the distance that separated them. I was grateful for what I had. It wasn't much but it was my piece of America; my little haven. There was nary a thought to hear while I was home. I didn't have to focus on not inadvertently hearing thoughts.

Something moved to the left of me just as I was dragging myself out of my car. I stilled and searched the night but heard nothing more. Despite living alone in the middle of nowhere with nothing but woodlands and a cemetery and a creepy abandoned house near me I wasn't scared. Crime was no concern. I lived the town of Bon Temps. It was a tiny town in northern Louisiana with a population so meager census was kept by changing the sign on the way into town when someone died or a baby was born. We all knew each other and that was how we kept count.

I focused on what my other hearing could provide but heard nothing more. Sighing, I made my way inside. I got ready for bed in record time and once my head touched the pillow I was dead to the world.

~oooooo~

"You sure you don't want to come along?" Tara asked. "We could do it together," she enthused. "It'll be fun and we'd come back with so many stories to tell."

I snorted. "I'm sure," I told her.

Tara Thornton is my best friend. I'd known her my whole life. She was one the few black girls in town and I was the odd girl out, so we connected. She understood I was different but wasn't exactly sure how. It didn't matter much to her. I supposed my being a telepath and her being black were the same thing—neither of us was really accepted in the small town in which we lived. It wasn't all our friendship was based on. She was witty and smart and a very sweet person.

Today the two of us were seated at Crawdad Diner having an early lunch. This was the last we would see each other for a while. This wasn't one of her road trips that satisfied her adventurous side. This was a commitment, something Tara was almost incapable of. Tomorrow she would leave the great town of Bon Temps for Jackson, Mississippi where she'd enrolled in an accelerated business program.

For the past few weeks she had been on a mission to get me to come along. It was due in part to her not wanting to go alone but she also thought it would be good for me. I was happy for her and very proud of her, I just didn't want to go with her. Even if I wanted to I couldn't, my bills wouldn't pay themselves.

Tara huffed and even if I wasn't a telepath I knew what was coming. It was written all over her face. "This is about Jason. You don't want to leave him because you think you'll come home to find him dead or in jail."

We'd had this conversation so many different times in so many different ways that I knew the shortcuts to get me to the end of it. She would begin an accusing statement much like she just did. Then she would tell me my relationship with him was textbook codependence. No, she wasn't qualified to play Doctor Phil though she knew a thing or two about dysfunctional families.

Tara insisted that I took care of him so I wouldn't have to have a life of my own. Jason in turn lived as wildly as he wanted because I had never let him face the consequences of his many, many mistakes. I was always there to pick up the pieces. Of course I vehemently disagreed. Okay, maybe there was some truth to it. For as long as I could remember I had been bailing my brother out of this or that jam. When we were kids it involved lying for him or taking the blame for things he'd done. After our parents died he became slightly worse. He just stopped trying or caring about anything besides the here and now. He was so devastated it forced me to be strong and that was how our relationship had turned into what it was now.

My grandmother had always had the strength I didn't where my big brother was concerned. She set her limits and if he crossed them she made him pay. She would scream he was a selfish manipulative good for nothing. When looked at him I always saw the person that helped me reach cookie jars and taught me to climb trees. He'd showed me how to throw a punch and swing a bat. He'd never let anyone get away with picking on me, not even his girlfriends. My fond childhood memories helped me defend the adult he'd grown into.

Now that he was my only living relative I tolerated my brother's many faults without a word. Jason needed me to know that I supported him no matter what but especially that I could separate the act from the person he was and I could love him anyway. There was good in him. It was deep, way down deep inside him, but it was there. This was typically the point when Tara would begin attacking my nonexistent sex life.

There wasn't anything I could do about that. I'd tried dating and even kissed a few boys. But that was far as I'd ever gotten. It didn't come from fear or anything like it. It was because touch made my telepathy louder. I could still block it out but it took such focus that I wasn't free to really enjoy the act.

In a way I wished Tara would just understand and let it alone. But I knew she couldn't because she was a good friend. With a sigh I cut to straight to end of this dialogue.

"I can't afford to," I told her. "And you're right; I never know when I might need to pick him up from the drunk tank."

She clucked her tongue but didn't say anything more on that note. By the end of lunch Tara had stopped trying to sell Jackson to me and I was glad of it. We talked about the room she had rented in an old house. One of her roommates was a guy that she swore looked like Johnny Depp. He was gay but she said she would try her hand anyway. All I could do was laugh. Roommates were another reason why I would not have been able to go. The conversation moved to all the great things she wanted to do once she got her certification. She had a dream of opening her own clothing shop, maybe even a whole slew of stores.

With a long embrace and a promise to talk as often as possible we parted ways at the restaurant. She would go home and pack for her long drive to begin another chapter of her life. I would be going to my brother's house to check on him before work because I haven't heard from him in a week.

I missed Jason at his house but from what I'd seen he hadn't been there in a while, maybe longer than a week. His mail had piled up and none of his windows were open as to allow for a cool breeze in the early Louisiana spring. I let myself inside because I was worried. It was one thing for my brother's house to be a mess, but he checked his mail.

"Wow!" I whispered in the empty home.

The house was spotless. Throw pillows had been bought for the old sofa and a vase of fresh flowers sat on the dining room table. The curtains were new and spruced up the bachelor pad. There wasn't a single pizza box or an empty bottle of beer to be seen on the floor or any surface. I had no idea what to make of it and I didn't have the time to try tonight, I scribbled a quick note and left.

Jason came by the two days later to wake me up nice and early on my day off. With him up so early it was either really good or really bad. Figuring it was bad I went to the door. A strange mind flittered into mine. It didn't unsettle me, more like it confused me. I stood in the doorway and exchanging greetings with my brother but my ability was fanned out as far as I could reach. The mind was fast retreating I realized. It followed the same path as my brother's truck.

"Who's got your truck?" I asked curiously.

He kissed the side of my head and entered the house. "Sienna," he said as he continued past the sitting room and into the kitchen.

My guess was he was looking for something to eat. I wasn't much interested in his appetite. There was something off about the unknown woman that was driving off with his car. I wasn't worried that she would steal it—which has happened before—I was worried that he had no idea who she was, which was a very common occurrence with my brother. Since she might not be human I paid it a bit more attention. Not only that, the mental signature was like nothing I'd come across before. I was genuinely curious.

"I don't know who that is," and neither do you I added to myself.

"You'll get to," he said pulling out all the things he needed to cook breakfast, not just the food but the pans too. That was odd to put it mildly. If that wasn't enough he took out my favorite mug and one for himself before firing up the coffeemaker. Whatever she was, she was getting him to behave. She had points with me already.

"I moved in with her," he announced brightly. I just watched him, not sure if I'd heard correctly. Unfortunately I had. "She's real smart like you." I was really going to act like I wasn't insulted by that.

All through breakfast I listened as my brother gushed about this woman. Of course she was built like Barbie's much hotter older sister. Women found my brother irresistible. They loved him, and if only for one night, he loved them. That was usually the beginning of his troubles but not the end. He was a pig and sometimes even he forgot it because he tried to play house, often. With that glitch in his thinking and his blindness for the opposite sex, forget it.

That would account for why he was so enthused about this latest one. Yet, I couldn't dismiss that there was an air of real happiness to him this time. It made me think it might be different with her. I hoped at least. It counted for something that she had gotten him clean up his house and buy throw pillows and new curtains. That was a first.

At the end of all his voluble talk, Jason tried to pin me down for a date to meet this new one. Deciding I wouldn't get around it and curious about what she was, I agreed for dinner in two weeks. If I knew my brother she either wouldn't last or I would read his doubts then. To my surprise, Jason didn't leave after he got what he had come over for.

I could never pass up an excuse to be outside as much as possible. I loved the chirp of the birds, the colors of the trees, and the bloom of the flowers. I loved it all, even the rain. It reminded me of new beginnings and a fresh start. It was even better today because as Jason and I worked we laughed and talked like we used to. When I decided to get to my chores he stayed with me and helped. It might have been him feeling gracious because I'd agreed to meet his flame. Either way I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. He changed the oil in my ancient car and did the yard work and even tossed a fresh coat of paint on my porch.

After lunch I had to run into town for errands. Jason caught a ride to Hoyt's house.

"She likes chocolate," he said before he got out of my car. "I was hoping you'd make that cake recipe you got from Mrs. Bellefleur when you come over."

I nodded and smiled. "Sure," I said.

He gave me a winning smile and ruffled my hair roughly until I shoved him. He walked away laughing. I'd always hated that and he knew it. Still as I drove away I watched him in my rear view mirror with a smile. Since he discovered women in high school we didn't spend much time together but today he reaffirmed that he was my big brother.

It was much later that afternoon when I went to collect my sheets that that nagging fuzzy thought entered my mind again. This time there was no truck. I frowned, rubbing my temples. I wondered if maybe my extra sensory perception was malfunctioning. I couldn't say for sure, it wasn't like anyone had ever done a study.

I began reading minds when I was five. Until then I'd been a normal little girl. Maybe now that I was getting older, I was losing the ability. After fanning out my mental net and getting more nothing I gave up and headed inside. Trying to focus on reading something that might not be there was making me feel like the crazy lady. Despite what some folks in Bon Temps thought, I wasn't.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sookie **

**Chapter V**

Weekends at Merlotte's were much more lucrative than weekdays. The tips were better because the bar had more activity. I knew it but now that I was sporting several different stains on my shirt and my head hurt I wanted to be taken off this rotation. It would be no hardship for my boss and good friend, Sam. It was a day that many of the other girls clamored for. With my glitch I didn't want it, but my bank account needed it.

Today I was having one of those days when I wished I had stayed home. My spring day had begun so beautifully, too. By the time I got home I wanted nothing to do with the outside world, not with one single soul. In fact I wanted nothing more than to be left alone for a great long while. At least for a little while I got exactly what I wanted. I changed into my pajamas and had a bowl of cereal for dinner. It wasn't exactly nutritious but it didn't require a lot of preparation or clean up, either.

There were two things that allowed me to wash away the troubles of my day. Watching 'Gone with the Wind' was one of them. I loved the old world feel and the turbulence of love that you knew was so true. No matter where Rhett went and how critical Scarlett was you never saw those two souls with anyone else. Then there was Scarlett's misplaced love for Ashley, talk about drama. It was all serving to pull me away from my own issues when a knock sounded on my door.

Walking backwards as not to miss the ending where Rhett walks away for what seems like the last time, I made my way to the door. I opened it thinking to find my brother or maybe Arlene who needed a last minute babysitter but I didn't see any of those people. The man on my porch took me from the Northern Louisiana to Middle Earth in one blink.

He looked so out of place that I stared openly no matter how much my upbringing despaired at the rudeness. I might have been able to ignore the shoulder length hair. It gave his unusual appearance a distinguished look. By unusual I meant that this man was dressed in tights, a tunic, and knee high boots. That was disturbing enough but he wore the look very well which was even weirder if you know what I mean.

As I assessed him, he stared at me. His eyes were blue to the point of being violet and they sparkled in the glow of my porch light. I dipped into his mind. I came back with nothing but fuzzy static. I recognized the signature and instead of taking a step back I remained where I was. This was the mind that I'd been hearing. Why wasn't I scared? I should be—I didn't know him at all. There was something about him I couldn't place. It was reassuring, familiar almost. It might be because he was old. While he was someone's grandfather he held raw appeal that was otherworldly.

Since they came out of the coffin, I'd often wondered how vampires would register on my radar. Living in small town USA I was yet to find out because in the two years that they had been walking about openly I hadn't met one. 'Course I could have come across one and not have known it. Being a telepath meant I wasn't blown away by the Great Reveal. It just meant I was categorizing the minds that I couldn't read. I was inclined to believe things other than human didn't translate well with telepathy. Sam didn't and he definitely wasn't human. This might be a vampire.

Being so far away from town ruled out the possibility that he might some lost unfortunate traveler. I hadn't heard a car announce his presence. Many ideas began running through my mind on the heels of that thought. Suddenly the fact that I lived alone in the middle of nowhere made me twitchy rather than comforted. There was nothing around but miles of woodland and a handy cemetery. Just the kind of thing horror movies were made of.

"Fear not," he said with a warm smile. His words were slightly accented and his speech formal. "I will do you no harm."

"Don't know that for sure because I don't know you," I told him firmly but politely. All the while I was thinking of the closest thing I could use as a weapon.

He offered me a deep nod of his head that had me fighting the urge to curtsey. "I am Niall Brigant," he told me. "Prince of the Sky Fairies and I am your great grandfather."

My eyes were on him as he vanished from my porch leaving nothing but an evanescent shimmer. I gasped and stumbled back a step and spun around almost losing my footing to find him in the house.

"I bring you good tidings."

~ooooooo~

When I left work this evening I thought my day had been bad. It only went to show that no matter how bad you thought things were they could always get worse, a whole hell of a lot worse. My visitor had gone but he had left me in a state of shock so complete that I didn't think I would ever overcome it. How he had ever categorized anything he told me as good tidings was beyond me. What he has told me was the end my of life as I knew it. It might even be the end of my brother's life—period.

I didn't want to think about that right now. I couldn't. From my place against the living room wall I was staring at all the photographs on the mantle above the fireplace. It followed the life and birth of every member of my family. I was looking at it with different eyes. Staring at the pictures of those that were dead wouldn't do anything to save those that were living. I didn't care what Niall had said. He was nothing to me and that was exactly what he was going to get.

I was smart enough to know that the only thing calling my local sheriff's department would get me was a padded room and straitjacket. Before leaving for Jason's I grabbed my shot gun. It wouldn't level the playing field but it made me feel better. Whether or not you were super human and could heal quickly, you still didn't want to suffer the pain that came from a gunshot wound. It was just a theory, one that I hoped I wouldn't have to test.

It wasn't until I was in front of my brother's house did I realize I had nothing else to do. It was the house where we spent the earlier part of our childhood. From what my father had said it was started out as a little cabin that he added to. It sat near a lake and was nestled off on the outskirts of town. Since my parents died I've never had an easy time of looking it. It was worse tonight because it was empty. Jason wasn't here.

Outside of his usual dives that were closed and the home of his best friend I didn't know where to begin searching. I'd woken Hoyt to ask the last time he'd seen my brother. It was the same day last week when he had been going on about the woman he met. I hated myself for putting off meeting her. If I'd sprung to do so right away like he wanted I would have been able to detect something was wrong with her. It might have been enough to keep Jason safe.

Nothing in my previous life experiences and upbringing had prepared me to fight monsters and magic. But I knew someone that might be able to help. With renewed determination I turned my car back towards Bon Temps. The sun was almost up as my ancient car graced Sam's lawn. By the time I was out of the car and half way up the steps he had his door open looking like death warmed over.

On a normal day seeing my employer in nothing but boxers would make me feel like I could die of embarrassment. Hell, I might have even stolen a few peeks to store in the male hunks mental archive. Sam had hair like a russet halo. Even with it mussed from sleep it looked good on him. His body was leanly muscled and his wholesome good looks would make a girl and her mama sit up straighter. I barged into his house pushing him to the side as I did so.

"Sure Sook," he said closing the door. "Come right on in, why don't cha."

"I need your help." I said without preamble.

He stopped mid-stretch and it might have finally dawned on him that if I was here at this time of night then it was an emergency. Smart man. "What's wrong?"

That question, the one that was meant for me to get to the point, cracked the composure that I'd managed to scrape together since that fairy darkened my doorstep with his presence. I rambled and cried and hiccupped my way through all that had happened in the past three hours.

By the look on Sam's face he didn't get any of it. That didn't made me slow down. When speaking was beyond me I just crumpled on his arm chair and cried in earnest. No one had to tell me life wasn't fair. I knew that. I'd witnessed in the minds of those around me who had it worse. But this, this was completely insane. I felt I had nothing to do with all this. It had happened long before I was a twinkle in my father's eye. It began with his father, his real father. Yet, Niall had somehow determined that it was I who needed to pay the piper.

Sam walked over and wrapped his arms around me. I'd always liked his slightly warmer body temperature. Tonight it brought me comfort. He rubbed my back and told me it would be okay. Having the benefit of touch I was able to read his mind. He was wondering why I was telling him this. He was curious as to why I thought he wouldn't think I was crazy.

"I know," I told him softly. "About you, that you're different."

I had to be real good at keeping secrets because many of them didn't belong to me. Knowing Sam wasn't all human was just one of them. I just kind of stumbled upon it. He was a werewolf or a weredog or whatever. I've known it since the first month after I took the job at the bar two years ago. I'd never been so confused when some stray Collie sidled up next to me for a scratch as it walked me to my car. It had the same mental signature as Sam. When I scratched behind his ear I read his thoughts.

For just a second his body tensed. "You're not scared," he wondered out loud. "You're not scared of me."

I shook my head where it rested over his shoulder. "Be like the pot calling the kettle black," I replied with a shrug. Since we were revealing secrets I might as well. I wanted him to help me and my honesty was a must. "Seeing I'm a telepath."

"Huh," he murmured letting me go. That was kind of anticlimactic. I mean I had a little more reaction when I found he turned into a dog. "That explains a lot." He sat on the floor across from me. "So what's this about Hoyt marrying Jason and some fairy wanting to kill him because he's in love with a vampire?"

I stopped short and for some reason—probably temporary insanity—I began laughing. When I'd finally slowed down Sam gave me a deprecating look. "What's funny?" he asked.

"I'm losing my mind," I replied succinctly.

This laughing fit was just a pit stop. Between the lack of sleep, shock, and worry I really felt like I was going crazy. It felt like I was burning the candle at both ends and due to crash. There was adrenaline in my system because I wanted to do be doing something. But there was nothing to do and the emotions just kept piling on.

Sam smiled. It was one of his finest qualities. He never let things get to him. Not the bar flooding or my recent revelation or current hysteria. He always had a smile to offer anyone in need of one. "Got all the crazy out?" he asked after a few moments.

I allowed myself several deep breaths before continuing "I'll start over," I told him once I found my composure. "My grandfather on my father's side, Mitchell, wasn't my biological grandfather."

Those words tasted like poison on my lips but I couldn't deny how true it felt. It explained so much about my life and my oddities. "He couldn't have children and my Gran really wanted them so she was with someone else. He was half Fae."

Everything that was done in darkness always came to light. My Gran had cheated on Grandpa Mitch. The affair had been ongoing and it was enough for her to conceive two children, my father and my aunt Linda. Both were long gone and so was Gran and I had no idea how I could reconcile the strong matriarch I idolized and loved with her indiscretion. To learn that she wasn't who I thought she was shook the very foundation of who I was. I felt betrayed though I knew I didn't have much right to be. To learn it from Niall, a stranger, had hurt all the more.

Gran had been a woman who had served as pillar of unwavering strength, unyielding devotion, and so much unconditional love. This was a woman who after losing her firstborn son hadn't let the grief allow her to not raise his children. Even after Aunt Linda died she had remained strong. She had been a great mother, even more so than my own. I'd spent my whole life bearing witness to her character. I just couldn't reconcile the truth of my origin with what I knew about my Gran.

"That explains a lot," Sam repeated "There's always been something about you, Cher," he whispered almost to himself. "Didn't know why but I've been drawn to you."

I shot him a glare that told him to at least try. He was from the other side of the curtain of reality. Apparently so was I, but I was a newly inducted unwilling member of this club. I hoped he knew something because this fairy hadn't been forthcoming. Sam scratched his chin as if he were deep in thought. There was stubble there and he managed to make it look sexy while on someone else it might have seemed unkempt.

"I think you're enough Fae to attract but not enough to be overly conspicuous," he said. "Where they tend to love flirting with disaster you prefer to be left alone and you don't have the vanity or love me, love me, thing most of their young ones have."

I made a face at that but decided I would come back for an in-depth fairy lesson later. "Tonight a fairy showed on my porch his name was…"

Sam lurched forward and clamped his hand over my mouth. I gasped but he didn't seem to care that he'd scared the hell out of me. His expression was as serious as the grave. "First rule with fairies, they're your basic supernatural being. From them come elves and brownies and angels and demons as well as water sprites, green men, all the natural spirits...all come from fairies."

My eyes were wide but I nodded because he still hadn't removed his hands from my mouth. "Don't say their name because if they are powerful enough they can tune into the conversation and they don't take kindly to hearsay."

I nodded again and he let me go. "This fairy," I began. "The one that came to my house tonight he's the patriarch of my father's bloodline. He is also the Prince of the Sky Fairies."

Sam's face scrunched up as if he was having a hard time believing what he was hearing. It took a lot to fight the temptation to enter his mind. I resisted because I'd always felt like he would tell me what I needed to know. "What did he say?" he prompted.

"He told me that I was beyond marrying age and that he has found me a husband."

"That was what he said verbatim?" he inquired leaning forward.

I nodded hesitantly. "Pretty much."

He shook his head. "Get specific, it'll tell me where we stand," he said. "Cuz with them it isn't what they say that should trouble you, it's what they don't."

"He said, 'You possess the essential spark.' Then he added the part about me being above marrying age." That had stung because any man should know not to go there.

Sam looked confused, worried, and shocked all at once. Strangely he looked like someone who was watching a horror movie and was at the edge of their seat. Needless to say it did nothing to make me feel better. And I hadn't even gotten to the most sordid part of this tale.

"He took Jason. He said that if this man that he presented me to chose me for his bride and I didn't agree, he would kill my brother."

The entire drive home from Sam's I was trying to tell myself that it would be alright. If for no other reason that it absolutely had to be, this would all work out. I was having a very hard time believing that though. Sam could do nothing to help me. The best that I could hope for was that this mystery husband didn't want me. After all I didn't fit the conventional model of beauty. I was a size seven and from some articles I'd read that was overweight even with my height of five seven. I've never been to college or even out of Louisiana. I wouldn't fit in his world. He wouldn't want me. He just couldn't. I went to bed that night with the feeling that I was fooling myself.


	6. Chapter 6

So far so good. I'm amazed that I'm growing to recognize many of the screen names of all my lovely readers. Some of you have been with me since the days of the 'Viking and the Valkyrie ' For that I thank you. Another big thanks to my Beta Rebecca. This Fic is moving so smoothly because of her ability to keep me in line. Thanks a million!

* * *

**Sookie **

**Chapter VI**

On one hand I could tell myself that I had no choice but I knew I did. There was always a choice. It was being faced with the tough ones that often made people feel like they had none. This one time I couldn't leave Jason to die. That would mean sparing myself from a life that might seem like a fate worse than death, but at least we'd both still be alive.

I already knew what the choice would be and I didn't let myself dwell on it too much. Jason was the one person that made me feel like I had a link to the normal world. He was living breathing proof that I'd had a real family. He was a testament to all that I'd had and lost. I would choose him because of the two of us he had the best chance at having a life.

The next week passed slowly in a torturous pendulum with my mood alternating between skittishness and amazement. No one in town thought to worry about Jason, not even the busiest body of them all, Maxine Fortenberry. When I mentioned his name even in passing, it seemed to confuse his best friend Hoyt. I was convinced Niall had done something to their minds and Sam agreed. It made me wonder if he could make Jason forget me too. It made me wonder if my brother was being held captive with chains or by thrall.

Every day when I returned home I expected to be ambushed by Niall but nothing happened. That was the worst of it; the waiting. There was enough of my grandmother in me to be strong under the worst of times. I've always had enough of her in me to stand on my own two feet and to never let anyone take that from me. Yet here I was with my head on the chopping block and my fate yet to be decided.

By the second week I fell back into my old life because the routine helped me retain some control over something I had no say over. More so I got back to my life and my job because bills didn't pay themselves and groceries weren't bought with tales of the extraordinary. Until I heard otherwise, I'd just act like nothing was different. It might not have to change, but really, my telepathy never much allowed me to be an optimist.

Since I couldn't devise a way to rescue Jason, I could learn as much as I could about the people who had him and Sam was able to help me. He told me any and everything he knew about fairies. It wasn't much but it was a hell of a lot more than I knew. So I soaked it all in. I heard about the fairies deathly allergy to iron and lemon, and the alternate dimension they resided in, though I couldn't figure out why they didn't keep their asses there.

Sam and I were growing closer because of all of this. I think he genuinely got a kick out of someone who knew him accepting him for what he was. I learned so much and I was glad for the companionship and for the one person that I knew what I was and didn't care. He wasn't a shifter and I wasn't some long descended Fae. He wasn't my boss or I his employee. We were just friends. The one thing about Sam that I'd always suspected: there was little that he thought that he wouldn't say or put into action. Whenever I stumbled into his mind, which wasn't often, he told me them at some point. On the flip side, our spending more time together was the talk of the town. It was something we were both able to laugh at because we knew the truth.

By week three I had graduated. Sam was telling me about everything he knew of all the other things that went bump in the night or that often travelled into this realm. It was like a getting an altogether alternate history lesson of species I never knew existed and wars I never knew had been fought. The way I figured it, it was safest to be aware. After all, I didn't know who my mother's mother had had sex with. Five weeks passed like this and I'd been lulled into a false sense of security. It was a mistake.

Niall was on my back porch one late May afternoon as I was heading out for my shift. He was just as compelling as the first time we met. Just seeing him there brought back all the things I'd moved from the forefront of my mind.

For a few seconds we stared at each other. I decided to take the opportunity to talk. The first time we'd met I'd just gaped and refused words that I knew had been true.

"If you're my great grandfather," I began reasonably "Then you're Jason's too." If Niall and I shared blood then so did he and Jason. That had to be worth something, right?

"Yes and no," he said looking around as if he had someplace else to be. "As I have said, you possess the essential spark. He does not. You are extraordinary, he is not. You are stunning in your beauty, formidable in your spirit, and are keen of mind. You are Fae, a Brigant." He didn't look like was paying me a complement and I wasn't fool enough to think that was what this was. It was his résumé of who I am that he had concocted. It was probably the same one that he had presented to this mystery man.

"But Jason is…" No adjective came to mind.

"Is daft," he filled in for me with little compassion. "He is blind and weak to the flesh."

I couldn't argue the observation. If there was any doubt that he had Jason before, there wasn't now. Those words described my brother perfectly.

"You wouldn't really kill him," I asked.

I awaited a response. I was trying to find some tell that he might be bluffing but I saw none. His silence was answer enough. And I knew he absolutely would do as he threatened.

"So I'm useful and he isn't. You'll whore me off or kill him just like that."

Niall said nothing as I stood there fuming. It was his patient expression that pushed me over. I spat at the floor by his feet. "You make me sick." I growled.

Niall looked between me and the place where I'd spit. "That is quite foul," he observed. "Do you have many such habits?"

All I could do was gape at the nerve of him. Sadly it did nothing to alleviate my fury so I flipped him double the bird. I wasn't acting like a lady and that was fine by me. For once I wasn't overcome with the need to apologize for something I'd done that undermined my upbringing. Slamming the door in his face I stomped inside leaving him on my porch. When I turned he was behind me in the kitchen as if he had always been.

"That gesture I understood and it is most unbecoming a child of my house," he said in reproach.

The sheer gall of this creature was in a class the likes of which I never thought existed. Would it kill him to act a little shamefaced or awkward at the fact that he was attempting to hijack my life? For the love of God he had my brother held hostage somewhere living some false reality with this female fairy. Then he wants me to marry some man I've never met. I didn't even know if he was a fairy or human or whatever. And he thought getting the finger was unbecoming. He was just lucky that was all I could do. Limited as my options were, I settled for a verbal barrage.

I looked him dead in the eye. "Fuck you." I told him sweetly. "Fuck your house and the high horse you rode in on. You can take all of it out of my life and straight to hell."

For a second, just the tiniest portion of it, Niall's face turned to ice. It thawed so quickly that I thought I might have imagined it. Then as elegantly and as coolly as you please he took a seat at my kitchen table. He looked so calm that you would have thought I'd invited him for tea. What I should do is invite him over for a nice tall glass of lemonade.

"You, like your grandfather, excel at exasperating my patience."

"Other than being a sperm donor, Fintan was nothing to me," I said evenly. "And neither are you." All Fintan did was impregnate my grandmother he had no part in my life. I continued to glare at him and was met with a wan tired smile that made him look his age.

"Anger solves nothing and neither does denying the truth," he replied. "This you know."

Tina came walking out from the front of the house. Wouldn't know she goes for Niall after sparing me a brief side eye. Kitty slut that she was she slinked her body around Niall's leg, brushing up against him. She used every trick she knew to get him to scratch her, but he didn't. He did look down at her with a perplexed expression.

"Might I suggest you sit so we could discuss what is to come?" Niall asked once Tina was finished vying for his affection.

My anger at him had taken front seat so much that I hadn't stopped to ask my verdict. It was at that moment that it kind of dawned on me. Niall wouldn't be here if this man hadn't chosen me. The thought was one that I'd been forcing to the back of my mind. I didn't want to contemplate the what ifs since all this started. There were just too many of them. Now the reality settled in. I would have to choose who I loved more, Jason or me. It was no contest.

I took the seat across from Niall. I loved my brother more than me. Of the two of us he was the one that would likely have a family of his own. He might not choose it but he had the option. It wasn't for me and it never really could be. It was deeper than that—I owed Jason more than anyone else in this world would ever know. When it counted most he had swooped in and saved the day when no one knew my world was falling apart.

"Talk," I said.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **We're moving right along. Chapter seven is below. I'm thinking on a schedule that all you lovely readers can rely on. Maybe one a day, maybe less, maybe more...it depends on the turnabout on the review page ;D

* * *

**Sookie **

**Chapter VII**

I was beginning to see a trend with the interactions I'd had with Niall to date. Every time he spoke it seemed to spell bad news for me.

"Vampire," I said feeling like I was going to vomit.

This conversation had just gotten started and I was desperate for it to end. I hadn't been able to contemplate what kind of man would marry someone he'd never met. It seemed too far fetched that he, too, was being coerced into this now it kind of made sense. Supernatural creatures had their own rules and mores. A vampire certainly wouldn't give a shit.

"Yes," he said ignoring my mounting hysterics. "This is he."

Niall waved a hand and this month's issue of Time Magazine appeared on the table in front of me. Across the bottom of the page was the headline, 'The Vampire.' I was looking down at a face that was angelic. That description came to mind because the face was framed by a shiny lush river of blonde hair. It was masculine though. I mean the man was the epitome of masculinity. He brimmed with virility, boasted a strong jaw, full lips, aquiline nose, and deep set blue eyes that were fringed with long thick lashes.

"He is alluring to you," Niall said and it wasn't a question. "It is fortuitous. He finds you appealing to his eye above many others. This is a compliment."

I made no response because I couldn't form one at the moment. Even on paper those eyes appeared as though they were beckoning to me and only me. He mesmerized so easily that it left me unable to pry my eyes away because of his sheer magnetism. The rest of him registered. His broad shoulders were clad in a navy pin stripe suit. He was wearing a crisp white shirt and a silky silver tie. I kept staring and all but forgot about Niall until he spoke again.

"He has requested your presence," he continued. "He will see you in two days' time."

And that was the bucket of ice water I needed. I whipped my head up and shot him a baleful expression. There was just so many things wrong with this that I didn't know where to begin. For example it wasn't legal for vampires to marry humans. I also had no experience in dealing with vampires. Also why in the hell would this vampire want to marry me? In the end I just had my mouth hanging open catching flies.

"Claudine, she is your cousin and she is charged as your guardian. Look for her by noon tomorrow. She will help you prepare."

I swallowed to alleviate the dryness of my throat to ask questions but before I could speak Niall disappeared.

I felt compelled to read the article. There were more pictures and an interview. All of it was centered around the business world and this vampire's ability to predict the market. I had no idea why that was impressive. He was a thousand years old. Of course he knew the flow of things, he'd seen it all come and go, seen countless civilizations rise and fall but sure whatever, lets act all impressed.

After staring at the image for a bit I saw things I hadn't at first glance. Eric brimmed with confidence, wealth, and an unremitting coldness. There was danger emanating from him. It was revealed with prolonged staring. It was subtle, like looking at a shark from the safety of your boat. You saw it and it saw you and both of you knew the only that made the difference was that you weren't in his element.

I didn't know anything about vampires and I didn't want to. When they had come out it had been a big exciting thing but I really didn't have an opinion. In his interview he had all the right answers and it felt like being led into a false sense of security. It made me dislike and fear him. I knew I was judging someone I didn't know but I didn't care. Closing the magazine and turning it over on its face I headed for work. On an afterthought I brought it with me. I wanted Sam to see.

Despite my unwanted guest I wasn't late for work. I relieved Dawn, another waitress at the bar, and she all but ran out the door. I hadn't been trying to read her mind but I caught the reason why because she was thinking really loudly. My face flushed and I looked down at my feet. I knew someone I could go to learn about vampires at least. Ms. Dawn was on her way to the vampire bar in Shreveport.

On my lunch break I pulled Sam aside. "Can we talk?" I asked.

He smiled and nodded. "'Kay."

I ignored the looks as we walked into the back office. All the patrons could at least not stare. Their minds were so in sync that I couldn't block out the chorus of the thoughts because it was all along the same line. They thought we were so in love we couldn't wait to get each other naked. Some were even expecting wedding bells. Sheesh!

Compared to what my choices were I'd race down the aisle to Sam. I mean the man was attractive. He was honest, hardworking, loyal, and caring. What was there not to love? That thought brought me up short. Was I developing a crush on him? I shook my head and fortified my shields. I looked at him properly. No I wasn't. It was the companionship I'd found in him and all the thoughts of the town's people making me question what I knew.

"He's a vampire." I said, once were in his office with the door closed. Pulling the magazine out of my purse I pushed it into his chest. As he read the article I told him about my unexpected and unwanted meeting with Niall. "Is there such a thing as fairy repellant?" I asked glumly. Slamming doors in faces got rid unwanted guests. Locking them kept out thieves. Bleach on garbage cans deterred critters. There seemed to be nothing I could do about my fairy problem. "Something that would keep them from popping in and out of my house. Maybe something to keep them from coming anywhere near me entirely?" that would be great.

Sam nodded absently. "Yeah, but you need witches. The ones strong enough to combat fairies are pricy."

I couldn't afford much but my home was starting to feel like a place of ambush. I couldn't put a price on my peace of mind. "Like how much do you think?"

"He invested capital in the first railroads and trains, then cars, then airplanes. He owns a boat building company as a hobby." Sam mused.

"I know that," I snapped. "I read it. Can you answer me about the witches? A ballpark figure?"

Sam's face was so deeply buried in the damn magazine that it would be a miracle if he didn't have an ink stain on his nose after. He should be outraged not impressed by some vampire trying to commandeer my life. He was my friend. He should hate Eric on principal. It was a stupid childish thing that was beneath him but I didn't care.

"Four figures at the very least," he said still not looking up from the article. "For a Prince of the Fae, it might run you five."

I stopped my pacing and shot him a baleful look that went unnoticed. "That crazy!" I gasped. Seriously I was in the wrong profession.

Talking to Dawn seemed like a reasonable thing to do now. The magazine told me nothing. Not for one second did I believe what I saw. He was showing only what he wanted people to see, nothing more. I was going to live behind the curtain or in the water with the shark. I needed some idea what I would be seeing. It wouldn't change anything but preparation was half the fight.

"Why the hell would he want me?" I mused out loud.

I'd been turning that thought over in my mind and came up with nothing. All this Adonis billionaire vampire was getting was an unwilling wife. I couldn't even guess what Niall's angle was in this. It made no sense to me. That was no surprise because these days all I had were questions and no answers.

Sam finally set the paper down. "If your great grandfather is giving you up he's getting something…" An expression fell over his face that was akin to dread and horror.

"You know something," I said facing him. "Tell me." I tried dipping into his mind but got a jumbled mess for my troubles. It was late and I was too tired to pry any deeper.

"You ever seen a cat with catnip?" he began.

If my confused expression was anything to go by he knew I hadn't. We were taking vampires and fairies. What did catnip have to do with anything, anyway?

"It's like that for vamps and fairies. They ain't addicted or nothin'; it's more like the scent and flavor of fairies is downright irresistible. Any time a vampire is even near a fairy they lose all focus on everything else," he folded his hands across his chest and it was a gesture that marked some emotion I just didn't know what. "When a vampire catches a fairy it always ends badly for the fairy. Course, fairies avoid them for this reason but I think you're enough…"

"To not have the catnip effect or be drained by accident but taste good," I gasped. "He can keep me as a source of fairy blood."

"It could be something else," Sam added hastily. "We don't know much."

It was too late for him to lie to either of us. He didn't want to frighten me but it didn't change the truth. I should be scared. I knew that being human and being humane weren't necessarily the same thing. There were human monsters that did a hell of a more than drank blood. Being different meant I didn't hate what I didn't understand. But this was straight out of a horror movie. Fortunately for me I was now beyond shock, I was well into anger and disgust. I mean who wanted to marry their food?

There was no sane world where our paths should ever have crossed and I didn't want them to. There had to be something I could do to prevent this fate and save Jason. This was my body. I didn't want to be food or a warm body. This was my life and I didn't want to hitch it to Forbes' most loved vampire.

Supernatural creatures might not care about feeble humans but they had to respect each other. Two natured didn't live forever but they had a voice where I would not. "What if you said I was yours," I said thinking out loud. "That would make Jason yours by blood, right?" He had explained all of this to me.

"No," Sam replied raking a hand over his tired face. "I mean, it would, but I'm a shifter not a were. Remember I don't have a pack behind me. I could shout 'mine' all I wanted but if push came to shove I wouldn't be able to back it up."

"What about the local pack you told me about," I said. "The Long Tooth pack."

Sam looked at me with a serious expression. "Jumping into bed with people you don't know will do nothing but pull your wiener out the frying pan and throw it into fire," he said firmly. "You need to take the time to think."

"About what?" I fired back. "What else is there? I have to marry someone who wants to insert straws into my veins. If I don't, my brother dies." I drew a few breaths to calm myself. Raising my voice at him wasn't right. He'd done nothing but help me and be there when I didn't think anyone else would understand. "Any route that stops both of those things is worth trying, isn't it?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Sookie**

**Chapter VIII**

Hours later Sam and I closed the bar. I knew he wasn't happy about the route I'd chosen but he didn't say anything. He called the pack master and we would be meeting them in less than an hour. To hang out with Sam was one thing, to go see a werewolf I didn't know was a whole other matter. I was scared to death. It wasn't without reason I soon found. The meeting with the representative of the pack went a little something like this: Out of the frying pan into the fire.

The Alpha sent his second in command. He had tanned skin, rippling muscles, and curly dark hair. Alcide Herveaux was a handsome guy. He was a handsome and scary guy. I felt like he should frighten any sane person. It had nothing to with the scar that ran down the left side of his face, it was his eyes that burned a hole on the side of my face the entire time he was speaking to Sam.

"Who's picking on your girlfriend?" he bluntly asked Sam.

"I'm..." my words were cut off as Sam tugged on my arm reminding me to be quiet.

"Fairies," he replied, not correcting the title by which I was addressed. "And they have her brother."

"I might know where to find some fairies," he said still staring. Sheesh, didn't he blink. "The question is, why you?"

"I'm a telepath," I said.

Sam elbowed me. I grumbled and rubbed my side. It didn't take a genius to figure out that if I went blabbing I might get Jason's finger in the mail or something. It wasn't like we rehearsed a script in the car or anything. I figured telling the werewolf that much would allow him to infer whatever conclusion he liked.

The intensity of Alcide's look turned to high beams. I tried not to jump out of my skin as I visibly saw him lean into the wind to catch my scent. "My pack needs a shaman. I'll track down your brother and…"

"What's a shaman?" I asked.

At the same time Sam elbowed me again and growled, downing my noise of protest. "Ouch," I muttered rubbing my side.

"The answer is no."

"You're a guest," Alcide said with his face hardening. "Watch your tone."

Okay, so it looked like no one was going to answer my question. Sam growled, pushing me behind and away from him. "And you're nuts if you think that's a fair trade."

It happened quickly. All I saw was Alcide taking a step. Then Sam leapt forward as if to tackle him. The next time I knew an enormous russet colored wolf was scrapping with a lion. The fighting was fast paced and the air rang with snarls and roars and growls of aggression. I was transfixed by the whole scene, watching utterly amazed with my hands over my ears. The strange thing was I wanted to shut my eye but they seemed to be glued open.

I knew what Sam was. I'd seen his Collie form. Once he'd even turned into an identical replica of Tina. That was cute. This, his lion form, was nothing short of ferocious and lethal. In my opinion Alcide was out of his league but he didn't quit. He was faster than Sam but not stronger. In no time at all he was pinned down with Sam's jaws around his neck. Knowing he was beaten, Alcide went limp.

"Sam don't," I called. I didn't want him to kill anyone because I'd been stupid and insisted on the meeting and spoken out of place after I'd been warned not to.

Sam tossed Alcide clear across the lot with a shake of his head. With a parting growl at Sam and another glance at me Alcide trotted off. His tail wasn't between his legs but considering the loss he took it should have been. He got his wolf butt kicked. Sam didn't change back into Sam. He climbed into the truck in his lion form. I was trying to think up plausible excuses for having a lion in the cab of my truck in the event I got pulled over.

Half way home Sam did change back but that, too, was uncomfortable because he was naked. All the while he was shooting me looks that said 'I told you so.' Truth was, he had.

"Can I stay the night?" I asked parking his truck next to his house.

There was nothing wrong with my car or my house. I just didn't want to go home. Between Niall and the werewolf I wasn't sure I ever wanted to go home.

"Might as well," he grumbled limping inside. "Folks already talkin'."

Sam found clothes while I made tea. "Why was the shaman thing so bad?" I asked.

He scoffed. "Minus the psychotropic drugs they'll feed you by the cupfuls to enhance your ability, nothing."

Of course it had to be some sordid thing. I just couldn't seem to win for losing. All I gained after tonight was one more person who wanted a piece of me. It was perfect, really. While I was out shopping for fairy repellent I could pick up some werewolf spray too.

"Thank you," I told him. "I appreciate everything you've done, listening and telling me things I ought to know and kicking werewolf butt. No one else would have done that for me." No one and that included my brother.

He rolled his eyes. "Don't make it sound like goodbye, Cher." He reached across his small drop table and squeezed my hand. "It isn't."

Bless him. He wasn't even annoyed that he had gotten into a fight because of me. His show of support for some reason made me want to cry. I guess that was what you did when someone made you feel safe. You were able to fall apart. I hadn't had that in so long that I forgot what it was like.

"I don't know that it isn't." I told him sincerely. "I don't know anything."

I had no control anymore. It was ironic. I'd fought to remain standing on my own two feet throughout my adult life. Then, just like that, creatures from another side of reality mosey in to take it all away and there was nothing I could do. I sat there staring into my steaming cup of tea with Sam's hand in mine.

My Gran had raised me to be a fighter, to never let anyone take anything from me. So it was hard to admit even to myself that I was out of choices. All I had now were options and I went with the best one. Until I had something else, I had to go along with it.

Sam and I shared his sofa bed and my back was feeling every spring I'd slept on come morning. It didn't occur to me that I was sleeping in bed with a man. Mainly because he didn't see me like that. We talked into the early hours of the morning but it wasn't about the craziness of my life. I knew it had been his way to take my mind off vampires and fairies and werewolves. It worked. It made me feel normal enough to finally fall asleep.

In the morning Sam was up bright and early to receive shipments at the bar. I was bleary eyed and my hair was a birds nest. The thought of going home had me wishing I'd invested in bear mace at least. Sam read the expression on my face and chuckled.

"Don't worry about Alcide. I spoke to the pack master and he sends along his apologies. The guy is a great enforcer but a shitty person."

"Thanks," I sighed. That was a bit of good news. While I hadn't solved my main problem I hadn't added to it either.

In the end it was guilt that got me out the door right after him. Poor Tina had been home alone overnight and it was a first. I was turning the corner into my potholed driveway when I saw a sleek car ahead. Propped on the hood like an ornament was a woman. Even before I got close enough to see her fully I knew she was something special.

I felt a twinge of recognition though I didn't know her. She was pale and her river of dark hair had red and honey colored highlights when caught in the sunlight. It fell in perfect ringlets to the middle of her back. Bright round hazel eyes lit her face. The peach wrap dress she wore accentuated her long legs, which seemed to go on for days.

She sashayed well into my personal space. "Hi," she said with a smile that displayed perfect teeth and dimples. She sniffed at me subtly but kept the results of the sniff test to herself. "I'm your cousin Claudine."

Of course she was. Not much could surprise me at this point. It was now amusing that I used to bemoan the fact that my family tree was trimmed to nothing. "I'm tired," I replied sidestepping her extended arms.

I'd expected her to pop into my house but she walked alongside me. In her high heels she still glided over the gravel as if it were her very own cat walk.

"Nice to meet you Tired," she said. "I'm looking for Sookie. Have you seen her?"

"Nope," I said.

My tone had been biting and there had been more than a little sarcasm. I'd hoped it would warn her off, but no such luck. Instead she laughed. It pissed me off that it sounded like the peal of heaven's bells.

"That's funny," she said draping an arm around my shoulder. "You're funny."

Yeah, yuk it up. I shrugged out from under her arm and she reached for my hand and used it to pull me the rest of the way up the back steps. It was as if she couldn't keep her hands to herself. When I pulled my hand free she was leaning her shoulder against mine as I unlocked the door. I hadn't said anything more to her but she didn't seem to mind nor did it mar her good mood.

It could be paranoia but I thought Niall was changing tactics. Where he was reserved and infuriating, Claudine was touchy feely and hard to hate. It wasn't her per se that I was averse to. It was just all the things she represented. I wanted her to leave so I could pretend for at least a while that my life wasn't getting overrun by fairies.

"What do you want?" I asked cutting her off at the door. She seemed genuinely startled by my hostility. Right.

"Ada says to take you shopping," she looked at me up and down and from the slight frown I knew I'd failed some inspection. "We have much to buy."

I left her in the kitchen with my Benedict cat in her lap. Tina was getting her ear scratched and purring to within an inch of her life. I shook my head but really I couldn't be mad at her. They smelled good and I hadn't been around as much as I used to be. I showered and tried to fortify myself for all the implications of the day ahead.

~oooooo~

"We will eat lunch," she announced clapping her hands. "Something sweet will improve your mood."

From the sound of her voice I knew she had to be repeating this. I blinked and found myself back in the car. The backseat was piled high with a mountain of bags from stores I couldn't even afford to walk past. Claudine moved her lips throughout the entire outing. She smiled at me and at the attentive sales people but I didn't hear any of it. I simply disengaged. We weren't shopping for me. Niall was making sure I was the proper package as he presented me to Eric.

We ate in silence at the fancy bistro in the mall. It was the kind of place you went for special occasions, at least that would be the only reason I would have ever come here. By the time our meal arrived Claudine looked like the silence was grating on her. Despite myself I felt guilty. How the hell does that work? I felt bad for someone who was an instrument in my ruination. But she had sat there the entire meal with big hopeful green eyes and a slight pout on her bowed lips.

Simply because I felt I deserved it I ordered a slice of strawberry cheesecake. Claudine looked at my dessert and the sad face intensified. In a not too subtle gesture, she began toying nosily with her fork. I pushed the plate towards her. Sure eating all that sugar might make me feel better now but I would regret it later.

"So you are my guardian, is that like a fairy godmother," I asked because I honestly wasn't sure. "Or do you grant wishes like a genie?" because I had to say I had a few.

She laughed softly and I had to admit that it made me want to smile just to hear it. "No and you never want to meet a genie," She shuddered visibly. "I'm your guardian because I'm your older cousin." Then she took a forkful of cheesecake. "In terms of power I cannot do much. I'm fairly young and…undecided in my pursuits, so here I am."

Not having a clue what she was being evasive about left me unable to pick through it so I just didn't comment. In any case she didn't give me a chance as she fell into Vampire Decorum 101. It was a lot more useful than anything Sam had told me because it was based on the vampire I was to marry.

"Going to him with the scent of another man on you…would be bad," she said looking at me pointedly. Then her sniffing at me clicked. She had smelled Sam on me. She didn't elaborate and I didn't comment. "He is old and from what I have heard he is mellower than your average vamp but there are things you shouldn't do."

The explanation she fell into was mostly things I'd learned in my upbringing. Others Sam had told me. In short I basically had to mind my manners and defer to his dominance and ego. I figured she thought I was really dim because she felt the need to tell me not to pick a fight with a vampire or to stay out of his way.

"Will he kill me if I do any of those things?" I asked out of morbid curiosity. "Am I the first mail order bride the Sky Prince is delivering to him or do they not last?"

Claudine stilled with her lips over her straw. The expression on her face was horror struck. I'm not sure why my question had unsettled her so much. It seemed like a reasonable thing to be curious about given with the run down she had given me.

"It doesn't have to be like you fear," she said squeezing my hand.

I noticed that she didn't answer the question. Annoyed, I pulled away from her. "How will it be then?" I asked because I didn't believe her, not for one second.

She shrugged and a mask of calm fell over her pretty features. "I do not know but it could be better. He cares greatly for his image and that will be to your favor."

Dollars to donuts no one had ever forced her to marry a vampire. "Yeah, it could be rainbows and roses but then it could also be worse than I could ever imagine."

* * *

I had to laugh when a reviewer asked me not to hold my chapters hostage for reviews. It's not that I'm holding them hostage its that i'm trying to pace myself so I don't hit a point where you guys are waiting more than a few days for updates. See, I'm thoughtful like that, now review or I'll come and get you! :-D (I'm totally joking, seriously no one should feel the need to report me to FF admin)


	9. Chapter 9

**Sookie**

**Chapter IX**

Later that day I went home and dressed for my shift with a new kind of appreciation for my life. I stood in front of the mirror in my unremarkable work uniform. It wasn't something I'd ever really thought of but I liked what I did. I got to interact with a town full of people that I knew. Was it sad that that was my only social interaction, probably, but was it familiar? Absolutely. It was familiar and safe and fangless.

I would be leaving it behind soon. The same was true for my car, my house, my friends, and everything I'd ever known. That evening at work Sam didn't say anything to me because he knew I was _this _close to breaking. He let me be and the chaos at the bar while I worked made it better before my shift was over.

As promised Claudine showed up the next evening to help me prepare. She primped and polished me after which I looked so unbelievable that I didn't recognize who was in the mirror. The woman was a head turner, but I felt like a show dog.

"I know you feel…bad," Claudine began. "I know you hate Ada for it and even me a little. I understand."

We were in Claudine's car and headed to meet Eric. On one hand I was glad he wasn't coming to my house. On the other hand I had no idea where I was going. What I had in my stomach couldn't be described as butterflies. When you had butterflies there was a kind of excitement mixed with fear. I was ashamed to admit it, even to myself, that fear was all there was. I wanted to be brave for my brother but I was going to pieces.

"Would you do this?" I asked her. Talking to her might make me angry and that might be better than anything else. "Marry a stranger, leave everything you know and love behind?"

"Yes," she said. It was the direct answer that got me to look her way; I'd been expecting her usual evasive maneuvering. She shrugged, "I was raised differently. To me this is as normal a notion as romantic love is to you."

When I tried on that perspective it explained a lot. It was why she was treating this like it was good thing when it wasn't. The problem was I wasn't brought up the way she was. I didn't know this world two months ago. But they expected me to comply and conform to customs that weren't my own.

In my head the ideal that love and marriage went hand in hand was still there. It warred with the deeply rooted compulsion I had to save Jason no matter the cost. In this instance I felt more fiercely protective because this wasn't his fault. Yes, I was willing to pay the price to keep my brother safe but I would never accept any of what they had turned my life into. It would never be real to me.

"If I could take your place I would," she said.

Those words were so softly spoken that I wouldn't have believed she said them if I didn't see her lips move. She nodded to reaffirm that I had indeed heard correctly though her eyes were fixed on the road.

"May the strength of my forebears carry me always, if ever that should fail, then I will endure for the sake of my house," she let out a very human sigh and her brows furrowed. "I learned that creed at the breast."

That was it for conversation. She hadn't distracted me, she had confused me. I guess that was something. I looked at the signs and saw that were headed into Bossier City. The remainder of the long drive symbolized what my life was turning into. I was in the car but I wasn't driving nor did I know where it was headed. I sat and simply occupied space. I was wondering about Sam and the deliveries to the bar this morning. I was thinking of Jason, Tina, and Tara, everything else that was familiar of my life as I'd once known it.

Physically I was in the passenger seat of her Mercedes, but my mind was miles away, far away. I found that I welcomed it because the detachment helped me cope. As long as I didn't let any of it register the urge to scream and run remained suppressed. I wouldn't lose sight of why I was doing this and it also wouldn't seem real.

"Horseshoe Casino," My fairy godmother announced.

I looked out then up at the towering sixty story casino and luxury hotel. It was at the heart of Bossier City, standing brightly against the night sky like a beacon welcoming any and every one that saw its light. And so begins my slippery descent into hell, I thought snidely. Claudine drove around back and stopped at a service entrance. For a few seconds we sat there in the silent car. She faced me and her expression was somber and her eyes grave.

"Allow me to say this much," she said.

I nodded and she took my hand in hers. "You are a child of the Sky Fae. We endure the trials we cannot escape. You will endure, if not because you can then because you must."

The hold she had on my hand grew tighter with every word and I couldn't pull away. The haunted, ghostly look in her eyes had taken over fully. I felt like she was trying to really help but I just didn't know what she was trying to say. To begin with I wasn't a sky anything. I was confused and a little freaked out not to mention my hand ached. Claudine blinked and then that charming smile fell over her face.

"It's alright," she said rubbing my hand "I know you don't understand."

You got that right. I knew asking wouldn't get her to clarify. It didn't matter because sadly, none of what she had said had succeeded in making me feel better about what I was about to do. It only confused me and left me with a dark sense of foreboding as we walked towards an unmarked metal door. Beyond it I heard two human minds and two not at all human. Perfect, more supernatural creatures.

"You cannot mention Jason," she said. She didn't have to tell me what the penalty would be. "No one will harm you. I will be here waiting when your meeting is done."

I looked down at my immaculately manicured nails and lavender sheath dress. It was all so foreign. I had no idea how I was ever supposed to ever make a good show of this. I couldn't. I looked at Claudine and because I had nothing else to go off of I pulled in a deep breath and told myself I could endure.

I nodded and with a reassuring smile she disappeared. The door opened and I was looking at two middle aged men wearing the hotel logo on their black uniforms. They were obviously security guards. While they unlocked the door, it was clear the massive wall of muscle behind them was in charge. Both were built like muscle builders; their muscles had muscles. Their minds were churning pools of static. If that wasn't scary enough they were wearing my weight in weapons. Sam had told me about many creatures from other dimensions. The only problem was I couldn't classify them having never crossed path with them before. I made a mental note to ask him later.

"Miss Stackhouse," The dark haired muscle man called stepping forward. "I am Hellion and this is Damascus." I got a curt nod from the redheaded muscle head at his side. "We are members of Mr. Northman's security detail. Please, right this way."

I entered through the service entrance. It wasn't until the second floor—when we traded the service elevator for regular ones—did I see the glamour of the hotel. The glass and gold embossed elevator doors were just the beginning. The express ride to the penthouse was another. I was still staring as I was led to the room.

Panic flared again but I suppressed it. Claudine had said no one was going to hurt me. While I might not trust her, I knew she couldn't lie. Looking around the sitting area of the room helped me distract myself. The suite was complete with an immaculately decorated interior, a baby grand piano, and roof top access to a pool.

"Hello," a deep baritone called.

I made an 'eep' like a mouse and almost jumped out of my skin. I spun around and there he was. I knew what he looked like. I was one of many people who did but to look at him in such a small space ripped away the barrier of supposition and artistry. Looking at a face on paper or on the television was not the same as real life.

Those lightening blue eyes that I had once thought captivating on paper were a hundred times more so as he looked at me. My upbringing once again despaired and once again I was forced to instill some manner of control. It wasn't easy. I was scared and my eyes still wanted to steal glances at him.

"I am Eric," he said as if there was a chance I might have wandered onto the wrong penthouse.

"Sookie," I said holding my hand out.

Remembering too late what Sam told me about shaking hands, I yanked my hand back as if he'd shocked me. All the while he did nothing but watch and that just made it worse. When I was done acting like a cat on a hot tin roof he moved back a few paces. I had to say no longer having his shadow towering over me made it easier to breathe.

"It is understandable to be uneasy around a man you do not know," he said in tone that was supposed to be placating. "Considering I am a vampire it might be irresponsible not to be wary." He pulled a chair out for me and sat down across from it. "Please."

On cue the door opened and a waiter came and offered me everything in the menu but I refused anything but water. Anything I ingested was liable to come right back just watched and sipped his blood. If he thought I was being rude he didn't show it.

"I'm not hungry," I concluded firmly but politely. "Thank you." I even added a brittle smile that made my face feel like it would crack.

Relieved I took a sip of my water to further calm my nerves. I sat and tried to let the numbness wash over me. It didn't come because my instincts refused to let me, not with a vampire in the room. I tried to steal furtive glances at him as he looked at his phone. It might have been presumptuous that he would leer or sniff me. The dress I wore was conservative but I don't think he even glanced past my face. He didn't look like he wanted to take a bite out me. Minus the utter lack of conversation it would appear that we had dinner like this routinely.

"Tell me about yourself," he asked, finally setting his phone down.

"What don't you already know?" I asked because my brains had been temporarily scrambled. The effect of his eyes were the same, compelling and chilling. I lost the lines that were supposed to go with the role I was playing.

"I do not know what you like or dislike in terms of food, entertainment, hobbies, or intimacy," he shrugged and the action did nothing to make him appear less alien. For a few seconds he eyed me and I fought the urge to squirm. He made no apologies though I was sure he knew. He just waited politely for an answer to such a loaded question. "Enlighten me," he prompted.

By the tone of his voice and the perfectly timed tap of his crossed leg I knew he wasn't asking. He was impatient. There was something about his movements that was too precise. He was trying to act human but it was off somehow. Don't get me wrong. It wasn't like a robot simulating human mannerisms. He had it all too down pat, too smooth for that to be the case. He wasn't even missing that essential thing that came from living a life as a human being. It was unsettling because I knew just how otherworldly he was. These perfectly tuned behaviors were for my benefit. It was to put me at ease. Like hell.

"I played softball when I was in school. I read a lot. I work as barmaid and I don't like anything that involves touch." That should answer the intimacy question without actually addressing it but I wasn't that lucky.

"Why the aversion to touch?" he asked.

"It makes peoples' thoughts louder," I replied. Looking at him I realized his mind was still a swirling vortex of nothingness and no amount of focus changed that.

"You are a mind reader," he said conversationally. "Interesting. Can you read my mind?"

"No," I said. "You're like a space in the room where a mind should be, a black hole. It sounds different from the two guards that escorted me here but I know they're not human either. What are they?"

"Britlingens," he answered. "A species of daemon from another dimension. You never want to be on the wrong side of them."

I wasn't sure if he knew it but that sounded like a threat. I was inclined to believe he did know because when I looked at Eric those perfect brows of his furrowed as if in question. Then it dawned on me.

I'd been so sure Niall knew I was a telepath, and that he must have told Eric. Why else would he choose a barmaid from the asshole of nowhere who had never been anywhere? That and the allure of my blood had been why he chose me. It had to be. I was so sure that he knew that it never occurred to me for one second that he didn't. Silence persisted and I wouldn't break it even if my life depended on it.

"You are different than you seem on paper," he finally said. It might have been meant as an insult. Or a complement. I didn't know. It left me at a loss so the truth came tumbling from my lips.

"You shouldn't have met me on paper," I said trying to get him to understand.

I was learning a few things from Claudine's evasiveness. Niall said I couldn't mention Jason and I technically hadn't. I would drop enough hints that he would get it in the event he didn't know. Eric was finally looking at me and not through me.

"I think I understand," he said with a nod of his head. "The Sky Prince has found a way to force your cooperation."

I nodded, feeling elated that he was quick on the uptake. "I literally wouldn't be here if someone's life didn't depend on it."

Eric reclined further back into his seat, portraying the picture of ease. There was no outrage or anything close to sympathy. That was alright I assured myself. He didn't have to care he just had to know that I didn't want him. It would surely be enough.

"Then this will serve us both well. It will be a marriage of convenience at the end of which you will walk away a wealthy woman."

So much for that idea, I thought bleakly. Frankly I was insulted by his presumption that money was what I was after. I swallowed the insult by trying to reason through it. As much as he was worth, women were probably nothing more than toys. I had no doubt that he'd had some that were for sale. But I wasn't one of them.

I tried to make myself sound reasonable and respectful instead of aggrieved and offended. "You're more than wealthy and twice as good looking," I admitted. "You can have any woman you want, someone up to these standards." I waved my hand around the room.

His head tilted to the side and I felt I'd been thrown under a microscope. I ran a hand over my dress but repressed much of my outward signs of unease. When he kept staring I pretended to be engrossed in the empty seat to his side.

"As evidenced by your refusal," he said. "That statement is not so." He waved an errant hand that displayed dismissal and indifference. "In any case it matters very little. We both have our reasons. They are not relevant and need not be disclosed. All that matters is that the terms of our union are upheld. Make no mistake that once we marry, I will hold you to them."

Claudine was back as she had said she would be. It didn't escape my notice that she watched Eric closely. He escorted me to her and parted with a simple,

"I will be in touch," like I'd applied for a damn job. I was so angry and frustrated I could scream.

* * *

*****Talk about Mr. Unromantic*****


	10. Chapter 10

**Sookie**

**Chapter X**

This time waiting was harder than the first because I was seeing Eric everywhere. His article in Time Magazine was just the beginning. Overnight he had turned into a sensation that was the face of the atypical vampire. He was yet to wear black or leather. His affiliation with charities, commitment to ending world hunger, devotion to funding clean, renewable energy and his refusal of layoffs at any of his privately owned companies was an inspiration. The world was falling in love with him and the whole thing made me sick.

Three weeks later I did hear from Eric but not directly. I read that he made a decision from his interview with 'GQ' magazine in what was their fastest selling issue in history. They sold out and there were incidents of people getting into physical altercations over scarce copies. I found out it was because he was stating that he was officially off the market. He was quoted as saying, "It is serious."

He didn't give a name, which gave me hope, except Niall hadn't been by to see me nor had he let Jason go. I still partook in some wishful thinking. Eric had probably decided on someone else. I couldn't imagine him being intent on marrying someone who didn't want him.

The end of June meant being in the thick of summer. Despite the oppressive heat I was developing the best yard in all of Bon Temps. Outside of talking to Sam, I had been using hard work in sweltering heat to make me forget my troubles. I was doing such a good job that even Gran's rose bush was making a comeback. My grass was cut so evenly it looked like I used a ruler. Yup, my yard was in great shape as my life was falling apart.

I had been out back looking for nonexistent weeds and turning over the soil in the flower bed for the hundredth time when I felt his mind intrude on my solitude. Momentarily I tensed. It shouldn't have startled me but it did. He was just such a nasty surprise. As was his habit, Niall simply appeared unannounced and uninvited.

"You find peace here," he began. "It is a mark of our kind. The sun centers you and giving into the earth strengthens your spark. That is unique to my house." He said it as if that told him all he needed to know about me.

I didn't know what he meant but it managed to taint this activity that gave me a little bit of solace. Why couldn't I just enjoy the yard work? Why did it have to be some fairy thing that I liked being out in the sun? I held a breath in until I was almost dizzy and then I let it out. That didn't make me any happier to see him. It did make me a tad bit calmer.

"What do you want?" I asked facing him. His tights and tunic were back but they looked considerable lighter to accommodate the heat. His hair was tied in a series of braids and a silver clip held them together. Grudgingly I had to admit that he was the best looking senior citizen I'd ever laid eyes on.

"I have the terms of your union," he said. Just like that he had crushed my hopes. "It requires your signature."

It could have been my imagination but I thought he flinched as I flung the trowel with enough force to leave it stuck in the gravel. I marched past him and entered the house. I took my time taking a shower and getting changed from my bikini top and cut off shorts to something more appropriate. When I reentered the kitchen he was drumming his cane on my cabinet. He didn't feel a need to explain and I was at the point where I knew better than to ask.

"Can you read my thoughts?" he asked.

So Eric had told him I was a telepath. That was the last time I tell either of them anything I thought they didn't know. They could wade in the dark like I was forced to do.

"Not knowing things you ought to can be a pain?" I retorted. "I know all about that."

There was a pause and I knew Niall was angry. I wasn't looking at him but I could feel the danger in the air around me. Just like the other time it was only there for a second and then he covered it. Maybe he knew I wouldn't say a thing because he simply pulled the document out of thin air. It was hard to be impressed by that when all I wanted to do was throw lemon juice in his face.

Looking at the paperwork I frowned. I'd seen encyclopedias that were smaller. The thing had to be at least seven hundred pages long. I wondered why I should bother reading it. Even if it said I had eat coal for breakfast every morning I would still sign it for Jason's sake. I voiced that point to Niall though much more crudely.

"I'm not reading this shit." I told him.

He shot me a mortified expression. "If you do not read it you cannot argue the dowry, which is an insult to a woman of your stature."

He sounded annoyed and I knew it wasn't on my behalf. More than likely he was annoyed that Eric was trying to pull one over on him. Since they were locked in their Alpha male struggle all I had to do was stay out of the way. I didn't care what they decided on so long as I got my brother back.

"You also would not have the option to negotiate if he feeds from you and how often," Niall continued. "Nor can you argue his presence in your bed, your monthly allowance..."

Eww...I kept the shock to myself. I didn't even know vampires could have sex. I mean they were dead. I simply assumed they couldn't get erections. I hadn't been worried about having to actually to perform the act because I didn't think it was possible. Seeing I had a choice I leapt at the chance.

"I don't want him to bite me at all and I don't want sex," I said interrupting him so suddenly he stilled. Niall's eyes narrowed, practically sensing my desperation. I was cursing myself for not playing it cooler. He had me by the balls and he knew it.

"Okay, fine" I said before he could ask. "I can only read humans,"

He smiled, clearly pleased with himself, the bastard. "I will meet with my lawyers and see what can be done."

I knew that wasn't a guarantee and the disappointment of not getting my way almost pushed my anger to the side and brought my fear to the surface. I refused to let it show, definitely not in front of him.

"Once I sign on the dotted line I wanted my brother back in his house, safe and sound," I said. "That's not negotiable."

~ooooo~

I was half asleep when Niall popped in the next morning. Instead of beginning his harassment outside, he was at my kitchen table as I scrambled to find some coffee. If I didn't detest him I would ask what managed to part him from his tunic and tights and forced him into a suit and tie.

"I have the renegotiated terms," he began. "He will not feed from you unless you desire."

I let out a relieved breath but it was premature. "However, for his kind to consider the union legitimate it has to be consummated but that will be the only encounter if you so wish."

I tried to keep the trembling from my body as that last bit of news settled in. Niall kept talking but I waved my hand for him to stop. Of course he didn't.

"Focus, for I have not the time to spare on your antics," he snapped.

I felt the need to be belligerent at his callous disregard but my heart just wasn't focused on anger. I was wrestling with my physiological reactions to the news. I felt hot prickles spread over my skin and my stomach turned.

"In return for that accommodation, your fidelity is nonnegotiable and his infidelity must be discrete." He reached into his breast pocket and slid a white envelope towards me. "That is what you will need to activate your new accounts. The monthly stipend has increased by ten percent. The dowry has also increased by thirteen percent."

In the silence I just continued to stare at him. The only thing I could feel was my heart thumping in my chest and my pulse thundering between my ears. I had no idea how to even begin absorbing all that he had said. I couldn't and he wouldn't give me the time. Then again no amount of time would do because it wouldn't make this better or change my decision. My hand shook but I signed the dozen or so pages that I needed to. The last of it was saved for the wedding day. Joy.

"You'll let Jason go now," I said, gently setting the pen down when what I really wanted to was stab him in the eye with it.

Nail nodded. "When you sign the last page at your wedding, yes." Then he vanished with the signed document, leaving me a copy before I could hurl curses at him. Damn that fairy to hell and back. I should have known.

That was not at all the way to start my day. I drank my coffee but it did nothing to help me feel better. The shock lasted all day. I was working through my shift when Alcide Herveaux walked in. I stood frozen behind the bar with my drink order in my hand. Sam wasn't here and I didn't know what to do. So I did my job.

"What can I get for you this evening?" I asked.

"I found your brother," he said, without preamble. "A real pretty boy, your color eyes, he's left handed but eats with his right."

"Where?" I asked half collapsing into the seat across from him. "Where is he?"

I looked around and I knew the whole bar was watching us. It was bad because no one was complaining about my lack of service. They were more concerned about me two timing Sam. I couldn't be bothered to tell them to mind their own business.

Alcide scratched his cheek where he had a day's worth of growth. "It depends," he drawled. He looked at me meaningfully. I knew he was waiting for me to recall his price.

"Bring him home," I said leaning across the table. "He's all I have."

"How come?" he asked leaning in as if to take a closer look at me. "What about him?" he waved his hand around the bar to indicate Sam.

Not wanting to make a liar of Sam or myself I said, "He doesn't change the fact that Jason is my only surviving relative. Nothing can."

He nodded and rose to his feet. "What time you get off?"

"One," I said, walking him to the door.

"We'll both be waiting for you when you get home." I wasn't even going to ask how he knew where I lived or even where I worked for that matter. "I hand him over and I have your word that…"

"Yes," I said. "I'll play shaman minus the drugs."

He stopped and narrowed his eyes at me. "I can do it," I insisted. "I will. I promise."

"You deliver on that I'll make you two friends of the pack, humans under our protection. No one will bother you anymore."

I nodded vigorously as new found hope surged within me.

Alcide didn't disappoint. I was barreling onto my driveway and there was an unfamiliar truck there. It didn't scare me because in the passenger seat was a very familiar mind. He was asleep but I would always know him. I took off at a run toward the car.

"Jason," I called.

I had my hand on the door when Niall appeared before me. He looked so frightening that I froze where I was. There was nothing calm or patient about his expression. He was a killer and by the glint in his eyes he was proficient at it. His hair billowed slightly behind his back offering a glimpse of his pointy ears. His teeth were sharp and exposed in a snarl so vicious that Alcide changed instantly.

"Filthy dog," Niall hissed turning to face him. "You dare steal from me?"

Niall didn't move a muscle. The next thing I knew Alcide was flung into the air. He fought but he was slammed off his truck's hood, then off the side of my house, then off the ground. He whimpered and I saw blood but Niall didn't stop. I didn't know I was screaming until a pair of hands wrapped around me, pulling me away towards the house.

"Stop it!" I screamed.

The woman who had been used to entice him into this trap hugged him and he hugged her and walked away as if he couldn't hear my voice. "Get off him! Jason! Wake up! Wake up!" I shouted. Magic was at work, I couldn't reach his true mind. He was walking around wide awake but in his mind he was dreaming of his favorite things. "Leave him alone!"

I cried. No one listened. I sobbed and no one cared. There was nothing like hope to make torture last longer. I'd come so close to my brother and avoiding a fate I detested. I didn't want to cry about it but I couldn't help it. My face was buried in my knees and I cried. I heard Niall talking to someone. I looked up and saw Claudine. Her head was bowed and I knew she was in trouble.

"Ada, I swear to you, upon my place in the Summerlands," she said looking over his shoulder at me. "I saw nothing, even now I cannot see." She looked as confused as I felt with the conversation. "I do not understand," she whispered.

Niall turned to look but I turned back to my knees because at least that way I wouldn't be looking at a face I hated. "What have you done?" he asked. He was standing over me but I still refused to look at him. "Answer me," he growled.

"Go ahead," I murmured looking up. "Do your worst." I braced myself for the same treatment Alcide had received but nothing happened. "You can't can you because I'm no longer your property," I taunted.

Niall lost his temper. It wasn't the stillness in the air or his features growing more menacing that was the biggest clue, it was the fact that Claudine moved as if to shield me. He continued to glare and the lights flickered and the windows shuddered. There was a part of my brain that was screaming not to push him but I found that that was what I wanted most. I wanted to shake him. His calm while he ripped my life apart was a slap in the face.

"Sookie, stop this now." Claudine said from her place at his elbow.

"Or what?" I hissed at her. "What the fuck is he going to do that he hasn't already?" I asked, turning to stare him down. He could kill me I supposed but that might be an upgrade from his false stern but caring persona. "What else is there is there for you to take?" I chuckled blackly. "You're not my great grandfather. You're my pimp."

"You are a deluded child," Niall said. "I will rid you of your veils. You existed on the fringe of this town where you are the object of ridicule and scorn. You wile away, shutting yourself in this elegant hovel you call home," he waved a hand in a regal fashion to encompass the place where I grew up as if it were trash.

"You have never belonged," his eyes were were like glass and both orbs were trained on me "Valiant as your efforts have been they were for nothing. You will never belong and ever will they shun you for that fact."

I felt like he was seeing everything I'd ever known to be true since I was a kid, things I'd refused to acknowledge. Now he threw them in my face to make sure they did the most damage. He couldn't draw blood but he would hurt me all the same. He couldn't physically hurt me but this was worse and we both knew it.

"Not even with the people you called family did you have the ties you so desperately sought. Your mother loved your father and simply tolerated you." I didn't look away from him though I felt a part of my heart break. "Your brother, the one whose life you bargain for, we both know he loves himself more than he could ever love you so you sacrifice and you give in the hopes that that might one day change. "

"Ada," Claudine said moving towards him. "Do not speak in anger," she took his free hand in both of hers. Niall didn't so much as blink in her direction.

"I give you more than you could have ever dared to dream. At your feet I have laid a whole new world: wealth, status, respect, admiration, and power. All that and more is yours but you call it theft," he shook his head as if disgusted. "Your existence was so hollow, so bleak and so broken that I wouldn't wish it upon a stray dog. You were alone and that is how you would have died, you would have died with the knowledge that you had lived a meaningless life."

"Enough," she looked like she was digging her heels in to drag him off in the opposite direction but his hands didn't even twitch. "You go too far."

"That half life, that empty future is what you claim I stole but it is nothing. Nothing at all and so were you!" he exploded. "That is the truth."

It hurt more because I knew he wasn't lying. My lip trembled and my eyes stung but Niall wouldn't get the satisfaction no matter what he said or how low his blows were.

"I know I'm nothing to you." I said. "But that life was everything, maybe not to you or some ancient vampire or anyone else," I ground out. "But it was my life. Mine!"

The Sky Prince's incensed expression fell away and his patient expression returned. He opened his arms to me in a gesture that I thought was somewhere between capitulation and sympathy. It was hard to fathom that he was the same old man that had just ripped my heart to shreds.

"Not all of us are afforded this," he said gently. "Living your life for yourself only, it is a luxury, not a right as you so presume. Freedom is like all things child, it has its price. Unfair as it may seem a select few must pay it. In this we are alike," he concluded. He turned his back and vanished before his third step.

* * *

*****Ten chapters in, let me know your thoughts. Are you more sympathetic or more sympathetic with the Sky Prince? After all he does have the entire sky Fae on his back*****


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: I was going through the reviews and I wanted anyone to know that if you have any questions about the Fic just shoot me a PM. It's kind of hard to clarify things from the review page and using this margin space is to give my Beta her dues and solicit reviews. **

* * *

**Eric**

**Chapter XI**

Tentative upon my marriage to a human native of the state I could officially begin my residency in the area. The house I chose had to meet several criteria; my choice was not one of them. Having lived as long as I have things like houses and cars became interchangeable. I simply needed something with the space to accommodate my entire Britlingen guard. It also had to have a place to hold my human blood donors. Lastly I needed somewhere close to my newly acquired offices in the business district. The farther it was from Sophie-Anne the better.

Batanya was my head of security and she made the final decision. The home she chose was at the very corner of the garden district. There was an underground passage to make a reinforced day chamber. It came with a separate pool house for the guards and a guest house for blood donor's that was located across a small lake and woodlands. Both of which would naturally discourage trespassing.

My biggest problem lately was human women and men trying to lie, beg, bribe, sneak or simply bolt their way through security and into my arms. I hadn't the slightest idea what they thought would happen once they got close. Having a permanent residence and a consistent office building would help with a lot of that. I looked at the grand estate with a sense of relief. I'd made the second step in my plan. The first and most difficult was already done.

I found a bride. She was signed, sealed and I was awaiting delivery. The woman that I chose was Sookie Stackhouse. Many of the others had been in Europe and therefore outside my geographic requirement. Then there was a Dallas cheerleader. I considered her because she fit the current western convention of attractiveness. She was a former beauty queen, very well educated with an outgoing disposition. She enjoyed attention. It stood to reason that she could handle the attention that being with me would bring. When I met her I realized that was a problem. She loved attention a little too much. It was all over her background check. She wouldn't be able to keep quiet about sensitive information she may learn while married to me and I really would hate to have to kill her.

Another candidate was a medical student that was born in Oklahoma City. She wasn't very well liked by her peer and so we had that in common. In her report the words, 'narcissistic' and 'extremely anal' were written in bold letters. I met her to give it a chance and her voice alone …it grated on me like metal on metal. No matter how little contact I had with her it would still be too much.

The process of elimination was how I found her at the very bottom of the pile. Sookie had been the last but best option. She was from a very small town, known for being extremely introverted and worked as a waitress. She had never attended college or been anywhere. I didn't care about that because it wasn't a prerequisite for smiling and nodding politely at the right people.

I might have overestimated the allure of the Fae or I might have underestimated my own lassitude for human women. Before the first meeting with Sookie I'd held out some hope of attraction, but there was none. She was a telepath and I supposed that made me her special. Compared to what I'd seen and what I could do it was more like a cheap parlor trick.

So I felt just as disinterested as I would be with any other woman. It didn't matter much. I didn't at all care where or in the presence of whom I married, just that I did. Her value to my goal could not be ignored. Her agreement wasn't crucial, her compliance was and once she signed the dotted line I would have that. It was as ideal as I could get the situation.

"I should shove this down his throat," Batanya hissed.

Tonight we were meeting with Niall for what was the last time, to pay the dowry which had been ridiculous. He wanted a dragon's egg and two of her best had to go to hell to procure it and they were still battered from the trip, hence her animosity.

"You would find that task incredibly difficult," Niall said, materializing before us. "Though it might be amusing to watch you try."

"By accepting this I assume you were able to reason with her," I said.

"Reason is subjective" he said.

In order words, no. If I was being honest it didn't matter but it would have made things easier on her in the long run. I wanted the transition to run smoothly but reassuring her wasn't my department. It was his. If he couldn't then I didn't care to try.

"She will be present at the agreed upon time." stepping forward. "If you would," he said holding out his hand.

"What exactly do you intend to do with that?" I wondered out loud.

My guess was he was going to use it as weapon but he couldn't use it on this plane. The natural forces that govern this world didn't allow for something like a dragon to survive here. From what Batanya said, it wasn't hot enough here. It would die the instant it hatched. It made no sense that he took a smaller dowry in place of something he couldn't use here or take back to his home world.

I hadn't expected for him to answer and he most certainly didn't. Batanya handed him the scaled red and violet sphere.

"Have her educated on what to expect," I concluded.

We exchanged nods and parted ways.

~00000~

Seeing I needed the permission of the Ancient Pythoness I signed myself on for her earliest available time so she could be present. It was in Chicago in a new pyramid hotel in early August. It was all a pain for me. In addition to being a logistical nightmare for my security staff, I had to push back meetings to make this date. If that wasn't enough, the regents that had been instrumental to my attempted exile were present.

"Hellion and Damascus flew in with your wife to be," Batanya said after I rose the night of my wedding. "She's in the adjoining room."

"Does she have everything she needs?" I asked.

"Yes," she answered.

I nodded and moved onto a topic I actually cared about. "Is Pam here?"

"The princess of darkness is trying to get to know your wife," Clovache inserted dryly.

I nodded. That was either going to go one of two ways. Pam was going to either have sex with her or scare her. She was welcome to the first option. I still couldn't drum up any interest in her. I heated my blood and did what work I could with the little time I had before the ceremony.

I never heard her enter but that was normal. To date Illeta was the only person that could sneak up on me. "Eric," she greeted.

"Leta," I said rising to greet her. "It has been too long,"

She returned my embrace. "It has little brother,"

Illeta was the embodiment of Spanish beauty. She had long wavy dark hair that fell to her waist, green eyes and olive skin that not even death could diminish. I set her down and looked at her. Something seemed to be off but I couldn't say what. It might have simply been time toying with my memory but she looked thinner.

"I met your wife," she commented. "She is…interesting."

"How so?" I asked.

"She's part Fae,"

"That and the state she was born is the reason we are marrying," I explained.

I told her of the details surrounding my marriage to the human. It was how I found that she had been away from her home for a while. I wondered how long she had been gone. It had to be a months. That was what had prompted the sheriff in her area to ask me about her whereabouts. So if by some chance she too was a target of the royals for marriage she didn't know it.

That didn't sound at all like her character but I left it alone. I knew that most vampires didn't change their stripes but some got old enough to try something new out of boredom. Her vacation was probably a product of that. If there was something more that she wanted me to know she would tell me. It was an hour or so later when we both looked up as Pam entered. True to their normal hello, she flittered across the room as fast as she could to tackle Leta. It ended the same way it always did.

Pam was frozen mid jump. Illeta spun her round and round bringing her within a hair from crashing into the walls, windows, floor and the ceiling. Pam just laughed as she was zipped around the room. I trusted Illeta entirely but for a vampire hotel this was pretty poor decorating. I cringed at all the sharp wooden objects in the room.

"One of these days," Leta said setting her down with care. "I won't keep you from falling."

"As if you would ever," Pam said dismissively. She plopped onto the couch without an ounce of grace. She parked her head in my lap and her high heeled feet across Illeta's lap. The latter was meant as a way to be a nuisance.

Illeta sucked her teeth and shot me a disparaging look. "See what you sired?" she asked. She pulled Pam's shoes off but kept her feet rested where they were. "She has the manners of a troll."

I laughed as Pam blew her a loud kiss. "You so love it," she replied.

"I like your wife," she continued turning her face up to me. She reached her hand up and I kissed her palm in hello. "She's funny."

That wasn't saying much at this point for Pam was easily amused. She also had a very difficult time discriminating against a pretty face. The three of us talked for a while. Then Pam and Illeta went down to the ballroom ahead of me.

I didn't see my wife until I knocked on her door, ten minutes before I was expected downstairs.

"Good evening," I greeted. "I trust you have had a pleasant day."

The hotel had provided attendants to help her dress and I'd provided racks of appropriate gowns to choose from. She looked presentable for the occasion, physically. Markers of anxiety were flashing from her every pore. She was in no danger so I ignored it.

She nodded with her eyes zeroed in over my shoulder. I could almost see her calculate her odds of making it down the hall and out of the hotel. For the fastest person alive that would be impossible. For her and in the shoes she was in she was liable to hurt herself. Even if she decided to walk away and break the agreement I wouldn't stop her. I would go to Niall and make him pay through the nose and then I was sure he would complete the cycle by enacting vengeance on her.

I simply stood and watched her make her decision. The frantic beat of her heart slowed as she accepted the inevitable.

"Shall we?" I asked, holding my arm out in invitation.

Wordlessly she looped her arm through mine and we began making our way to the ceremony.

* * *

**I've seen shot gun wedding's with more romance... **


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: The previous chapter and this were supposed to be one chapter but I couldn't find a way to cut it and I was atoning for my sins because I missed my midnight update today...so I made it a double feature to address a lot of the mystery behind Eric. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Eric **

**Chapter XII**

Sookie had been briefed on what a wedding to a vampire would entail as I specified. By her shocked expression I could tell she had been expecting it to be more. I smothered a sigh. Typical human, of course she was expecting bells and whistles because she was merging her life to another.

The reality of a union where vampires were concerned was very simple. Witnesses gathered an official oversaw the signing of the marriage documents and that was it. The only thing that made mine remotely special was that the Pythoness presided over it and the witnesses were unhappy that I was getting my way. I signed on the last page of the document taking her for my wife and that she did the same making me her husband. I kissed her cheek lightly and that was that. I'd put a great big hassle behind me.

There was a brief intermission where the witnesses socialized. I took the opportunity to introduce Sookie to Sophie-Anne. I made a point to nod my head deeply for show. Following the cue Sookie did the same.

"Your Majesty," I greeted. "Meet my bride, Sookie this is Queen Sophie-Anne."

"Nice to meet you," she said politely. But the hold she had on my arm tightened ever so much. Obviously my wife was no fan of the fang. I didn't hold it against her. It has been ages since I'd found myself in the presence of this many vampires. Over the years my kind avoided me and I returned the favor as much as I was able to. I took a good look because I wouldn't be doing it again anytime soon.

"It is a pleasure to see the woman that can take the Viking off the market," she commented with a coy smile.

"Her Majesty is most kind to say so," I replied smoothly. "Please excuse us."

I took a step back and when she dismissed me I retired back to my room with Sookie in tow. Sex was on the mind of my wife but from her apprehensive expression she wasn't looking forward to it. Truth be told neither was I. I had something that would spare us both the headache.

"Sign this," I said, handing her the document from my breast pocket. "It states that the union has been consummated."

She signed the document after a quick glance without question. Getting this out of the way gave me time to lay down the ground rules ahead of time. From her reluctant position I needed something to sweeten the deal. In addition to monthly allowance, betrothal and wedding presents, I bought her several new cars. I'd also hired an assistant that hired a full entourage on her behalf. They would see to her every need from grooming to food and everything in between.

The price of my generosity was my time. I didn't want to be bothered with her. So long as we fulfilled our role in public I need not see her. I explained all of it and gave her new phone that was complete with a list of her contacts and handlers. Sookie listened and nodded politely but said nothing.

"It is not my intent to keep you prisoner or anything of the sort." I concluded. "As I stated previously, all that matters is that the terms our union are upheld. The house I purchased will be your home. You are free to come and go. My only point of contention is that you do so with the guards you have been assigned."

Another nod. Her mute routine wasn't something I expected. I'd given her jewelry that would shame a queen. I'd found a way around the fact that she didn't want sex. I'd been generous and she was either oblivious or ungrateful.

"Do you have any questions or concerns?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"For future references, questions and concerns should be routed through Bobby Burnham and he will assist you," I said. "You may retire now if you wish."

She nodded.

Having gotten our business out of the way I prepared to leave her. It crossed my mind to ask an open ended question just to make her speak but I didn't thrill from exerting control. If she didn't want to use this opportunity to speak, she wasn't going to get many others in the near future. Plus, the less she said the faster I could get back to more important things.

There was a Bazaar in the grand ballroom of the hotel and I attended because Pam was there. She didn't know how to behave in the presence of other vampires. That was my fault and I was sure I would spend forever paying for it. Most makers treated their vampire offspring like a second in commands, someone they could trust because they could exact complete control. It was very much a master and servant role.

All of it was a vastly different with Pam. I saw her as all that was good in me. From the very beginning I'd indulged her even when I shouldn't have. Long ago Illeta had told me I would regret it. Moments like these I had no idea how right my sister had been. I saw the confrontation long before Pam decided to open the door wide open to it.

"Excuse me," my child said, trying to bypass Freyda and her entourage.

"It is respectful to bow when addressing a royal," Freyda replied coolly.

"I have a bad back," Pam replied dryly. "Bowing and curtsying your way through the Victorian era can do that you know."

Pam had learned through the grapevine that the queen of Oklahoma had been one of the leading claimants against me. I didn't hold it against her because I got my way. That was all that mattered. Pam wasn't going to let that go and bow to her and asking her to do so was nothing but a power trip. She might be queen but she wasn't Pam's queen. She might be a royal but this wasn't even her state.

The room had grown progressively quiet as their exchange lost its air of faux passiveness. Entering the middle of that would only make things worse. I remained in the bar area of the ballroom and struck up a conversation with a scribe of the Pythoness just to keep out of sight.

"Mind your tone young one," Freyda inserted in a dangerously mellow tone.

"Piss off," Pam replied. "Unless you're going to make me mind my tone that is."

I sighed internally. That child of mine really did have the manners of a troll. I didn't like what she was doing but it didn't matter what she did, no one threatened or harmed her, no one. Without needing to be told my bodyguards left my side and flanked my child in an effort to mitigate the confrontation. Britlingens were an excellent deterrent.

At that blatant disrespect Freyda flashed fang and hissed. Her eyes were emerald slits on her porcelain face. I knew that if Pam was anyone else she would be receiving a very viable threat from her majesty. I watched the confrontation with an air of mild interest but not concern. Push wouldn't ever come to shove. Freyda knew she would be ash before she raised a hand to Pam.

"Are you still going to insist I bend over for you?" Pam asked folding her arms.

From the corner of my eyes I saw Sophie-Anne and André share a smile. They had their own issues with Freyda. Having Pam blast her in the open was a bonus. She might not know it but my child was choosing sides. My sister ghosted in from the back of the room.

"Pamela," Illeta gently chided. "Forever is a long time. It is why we night children always show decorum. You will apologize to the queen and you will do so now, anything less will be an insult to your bloodline."

"Seriously Leta?" Pam asked. "She's…"

"Apologize Pamela, now." My sister insisted.

"I'm sorry," she bit out as if the words minted silver on her tongue. "Excuse me please," she even added a nod for propriety sake but that was so reluctant I thought her neck would snap in two. She did it because even she knew I would forgive her anything else except disrespecting Illeta.

Appearances were everything and the show of respect was enough to appease Freyda. Illeta kissed Pam's head and pushed her my way. Then to further smooth things over she took Freyda by the hand and they continued circling the room. It didn't avoid my notice that Illeta spent more than a few pennies indulging the tastes of Freyda. Some might call it bribery but vampires were big on restitution. No matter the offense there was always a sum of money large enough to appease it. Though there was no real grievance this was my sister's way of making sure Freyda wouldn't cry disrespect later.

Pam remained alongside me but I didn't speak to her until we got back to my room. She was in trouble and she knew it.

"Please get it out of the way." My child after ten minutes of me just glaring at her.

"I absolutely do not need you to antagonize anyone, a royal especially," I snapped.

"Did you miss the part where she told me to grovel?" my child replied. "On top of that she's spreading stories to anyone that would stop long enough to listen."

"As is her prerogative," I retorted. "How many times have I told you? I don't need you to wage my wars or fight my battles. And where are you guards?" They would have been enough to mitigate her confrontation. No matter how angry she was Freyda wouldn't have flashed fang with daemon guards around.

She shrugged. "I left them at a hotel close to the airport. I figured you'd be enough to keep me out of trouble." She shot me smirk. "Turns out I was right."

I wasn't amused. "Pam," I barked. "This isn't Canada."

"Fine, I'm gone," she said, and then she headed for the door. "I'm sorry," she said with her hand on the knob. "I love you," I said nothing because I was trying to play the heavy. It wouldn't last long but I would save face as long as I could.

"You're going to make me sad," she said.

I went over and kissed her lips softly. Freyda wasn't worth upsetting her over. "I never want you to be sad. I love you always but I also love it when you behave yourself," I said.

"I have diplomatic immunity with Canada that I want to test," she said with a grin. "I'm thinking shop lifting or public indecency."

I fought a smile. "I mean it Pam, behave."

Her laughter was my only response as she bounded out of the room. I called Batanya the second the door closed.

"Pull Hellion and Damascus from my wife and send them after her, please." I'd really preferred to leave without further incident.

"No can do. Your wife is out."

"Doing what?" I asked. It wasn't that I cared where she was or what she did. It was the fact that she had told me one thing and was clearly doing another.

"Riding the subway," she commented. "Clovache and I will cover the princess of darkness."

With my guards gone I was remanded to my room for the night. I didn't mind. With all the different business venues and time zones in the world there was always a call to return and emails to reply to. Since I didn't have to spend time consummating my marriage I was ahead of schedule.

It was several hours later and everyone returned at once. Sookie along with Hellion and Damascus entered the main sitting area through her door. She looked a little bedraggled. Pam was being escorted in with Batanya tight at her side but Clovache the explosives expert was nowhere to be found. That typically meant one thing. There was a bomb here somewhere.

* * *

**I wanted to depict a closer look into Eric and Pam's relationship because it's such a stark contradiction to the way he sees everyone (Sookie included) it kind of shows how extraordinary his growing to care for her really is. You guys agree, disagree? Let me know. I'm always curious to know if I illicit the targeted emotions from readers. **


	13. Chapter 13

**AN:** **I hate to say it but you guys should prep for some delays. I'm trying to keep my time table but I care more quality than speed so...you just have to hang in there. I'm putting it up here for those of you that might want to stave off reading just one chapter at a time. Everyone else you ave been warned. **

* * *

**Sookie**

**Chapter XIII**

After he talked at me for five minutes I watched Eric walk out of my room. For the first time in months I took a breath. That feeling of having survived my very personal doomsday gave me a sense of strength. The worse had happened but I was still here. I wasn't dead. I'd gone through the wedding ceremony with a numbness that helped me survive it. I had to be honest with myself and say it could have been worse.

I didn't have to drink blood or kiss the groom. I just had to sign my life away in a roomful of the undead. What I was dreading was what came after. I thought Eric would want what he paid for but he hadn't. He didn't want sex. He didn't want to keep me prisoner at least in the conventional sense. He wanted me to lie to the world about my life with him.

Considering the things I'd been afraid of and memories I got from the mind of human that belonged to vampires, that had been nothing. It was a small price to pay especially after I'd called Jason and he had been home. He sounded alright and broke the bad news to me that he and Sienna had split. I listened all the same even though nothing about that was real. It had just been a relief to hear his voice and hear him complain. It made this day less like hell and more like a bad dream.

I'd never left home and I had no idea where I would be tomorrow. So I'd gone out with my hulking but silent body guards and rode the trains and took pictures and just soaked in the brightly lit downtown Chicago area. I figured that was really good use of my time. Plus I refused to have a pity party. I came back to the hotel after three in the morning mentally and physically exhausted, only to be dragged out before my head warmed the pillow.

"You need to get dressed," Damascus said. "We need to move, now."

I didn't ask not that he gave me chance to. He was trying to slip my arms into my shirt and rouse me from bed. I got dressed half asleep then I half walked and was half carried to the sitting area of the hotel suite by Hellion. To my immense horror I was the only human amongst three vampires, with my shirt mis buttoned. It was was like the bad dream where you go to school in your undies but slightly worse.

"What's the situation?" Eric asked not looking up from his stack of papers.

That's what I'd like to know. I was freaking exhausted.

"Bomb in the hotel," the female Britlingen answered

That shit woke me right up. I rubbed my eyes and tried to make sure I wasn't having some kind of wigged out dream brought on by stress. I saw the protestors and read the hateful thoughts in their mind but a bomb seemed extreme.

"Timed to detonate at dawn," the daemon continued. "But there is a remote trigger. Clovache can disarm it."

"Recommendations?" Eric asked.

"Discreet evac, we shouldn't get our fingerprints on this train wreck."

He finally looked up. "Make it so."

"We move in five," she said easing out of the room.

When she left, my hulking silent shadows, Damascus and Hellion went with her. I guess their job was to protect me from anyone but the selected few in the room. If I could I would seriously contest that point but I had bigger problems. Oh like say, a bomb. I seemed to be the only one that was bothered by that which made it crazier if you know what I mean.

No one was panicking. Pam was calmly flipping through her magazine. Illeta entered the room and was seated like a willowy statue come to life by her side. Eric was working on his laptop. They all looked as easy as Sunday morning. Meanwhile I was fighting the urge to run around screaming in a panic. We should be calling the police. We should be doing something other than sitting here as if this wasn't happening.

Claudine said never to undermine him in front of other vampires and that wasn't what I was doing. Technically I was undermining the very muscular demon. I seriously hoped that made a difference in his eyes.

"Shouldn't we call the police?" I asked. I spoke and three pairs of eyes glanced my way. All three were wearing different shades of indifferent. I kept my eyes focused on nothing in general. I knew better than to look a vampire in the eye.

"This won't be the first or the last time." Pam chimed in. "You should get used to people trying to kill you but only succeeding in ruining your fun."

The extremists that were targeting vampires wouldn't have chosen this place if not for the vampires gathering in masses. It also wasn't worth mentioning that I wouldn't be here if not for a certain vampire insisting to marry me.

"What she means is that your security staff routinely and vigilantly screens for threats and they are prepared to respond to any eventuality." Illeta explained. It might have been to make me feel better but I preferred Pam's version. It was painted a very bleak picture of my life from now on but it was honest.

"What about everyone else?" I asked. "The ones that didn't choose to be here and the ones that have no guards?"

"I do not make a habit of carrying the weight of world on my shoulders; fragile as yours are, neither should you."

"But you can help," I insisted.

His eyes found mine despite my best efforts and I got the incredible feeling that I was playing chicken with a freight train. "I will say no more on this matter."

There was a ring of finality to his voice that told me that there was no arguing with him, not that I would. It was one of the things Claudine had told me not to do. I didn't have to wonder why. His own kind watched themselves around him. He would leave and leave everyone else here to die. This bomb wouldn't claim nearly as many vampire lives as it would human. A vampire could regrow limbs. They could survive so much more than any human. I knew they knew that. I just couldn't make them care.

The procession was headed discreetly toward the exit and I was trying to think of something to do. I didn't want to leave with the knowledge that these people were in danger and I'd done nothing. Controlling Eric was not something I could do. All I had control of were my actions. I saw it as I approached and I knew I would do it.

We were on the back stairwell that led into the service entrance of the hotel. Carefully as not to call attention to myself I leaned to the side and pulled the fire alarm. The blaring filled the stairway and was rebounding through the hotel. I thought I'd been quick depressing the lever but before I got a chance to take my hand off it, all eyes were on me.

I folded my arm across my chest and looked right back at them unrepentantly. If it put their perfectly pressed routine in a twist, they could just get the fuck over it. I wasn't about to leave an entire hotel full of people to die. Eric leveled me with a look that conveyed several different things. I couldn't say what it was but I knew it wasn't good. Then he tilted his head to the side and waved Pam to his side. The bodyguards didn't miss a beat. They shifted seamlessly like blades on a fan and continued escorting her out.

"I have her," Illeta said coming over to take my hand.

"Sookie," Eric called and that one word was loaded. "You will go with Illeta until I send for you. Do you think you can handle that?"

I hadn't lost my indignation at his callous regard for human life. It was just that the feeling was accompanied by self-preservation. I didn't say anything, not that he gave me a chance to. He turned and followed behind Pam.

"This way," Illeta said wrapping her arm around my waist.

We took an emergency exit that set off more alarms in the building. I could hear frantic thoughts and the steady stampede of feet as people evacuated. Outside the parking lot was full of activity. The street was filling with people and emergency response vehicles. The only ones that were sticking around to watch were humans. From the shadows all the vampires were ghosting off to secure locations. I heard their unique signatures fleeing quickly.

I didn't notice much after I got into Illeta's sleek sports car. My mind was wrapped around the last words he'd said to me, 'Go with Illeta until I send for you, do you think you can handle that?' The nerve. In my head I was calling Eric all the bad names I knew and mixing them with every swear word I ever heard of.

It was like I was some misbehaving child. Not even a child, as if I was a dog. Heaven forbid I wasn't comfortable with just letting countless people die. Who did he think he was? That internal question was rhetorical even to myself. I knew exactly what he thought of himself. He had more money than God. He was a walking Adonis, not to mention he was a vampire. Of course he thought he could talk down at me. What infuriated me was that I had to let him.

Still I was convinced I'd done the right thing by pulling the fire alarm so Eric's words shouldn't infuriate me but they did. He would always treat me like this and I would always have to let him. I mean I didn't even know where I was going. I didn't know where the house we were supposed to share was located. I didn't know anything. I just had to follow behind him and jump when he said.

God! What the hell had my life turned into? I just married a vampire in a room full of countless others not three hours ago. Now I was riding in a car with a vampire I didn't know so I could get away from terrorists.

"Can you see a sign for Murry St.?" I looked beside me.

Illeta was lovely in an otherworldly way like I found all vampires were but she was stunning. From her long dark hair to the perfect flare of her hips and her tiny feet, she was a looker. It figured. I swear hanging around all these picture perfect supes was going to give me a complex.

"Are we lost?" I asked looking around in vain.

This was the first time I'd been away from home. I couldn't find this Murry Street in the day time with a flashlight, never mind in the dead of night through a car with tinted windows.

"No," she said sounding confident.

I kind of doubted that. I was almost sure we'd circled this coffee shop more than once. When we cruised past it a third time I knew we were lost. It really had to be my luck. I was with the only vampire in the world that had a poor sense of direction. I looked and picked through the minds of people in the area to get a better lay of the land and I found it. We pulled into a single family home at the end of the street in question. It was so incredibly normal looking; the white picket fence, the flower bushes and even the two car garage. It just happened to be used by vampires as a bolt hole. Seriously, what was my life turning into?

Illeta was nice enough, more so than anyone else I'd encountered thus far in my new life. It has been all business with Eric and the body guards. Pam had hit on me but she struck me as harmless—at least as much as a vampire could be. Illeta made small talk and offered made an effort to let me know what was going on. We watched the news together as news of the attempted bombing at the hotel unfolded. After she saw me to my room and came to check on me just before dawn. A part of me wanted to ignore her knock but I knew from experience it didn't get rid of supes. I opened the door to find that she was holding a tray with all the fixings to make tea.

"Can I interest you?" she asked.

"No thank you," I said politely.

"Don't worry. I'm sure he will send for you soon," she said in what was supposed to be a reassuring tone. She nodded, smiled kindly and walked away.

Ugh, that tears it! The instant the sun rose I left. Eric could send for me whenever he wanted but I wasn't going to be here waiting on him.

~ooooo~

I'd been gone from home two days and I didn't recognize my small town when I returned. It was crawling with reporters for two very different reasons. The serious ones were covering the murders of two women, one of whom was my friend and former coworker. Dawn Green. She and another woman Maudette Perkins had been raped and strangled. On the other hand there were the idiot tabloid writers who had come to get a scoop. Apparently the cat was out of the coffin.

No one was showing an ounce of mourning for the tragedy and unsolved murders. The townspeople were all excited and trying to get their five minutes of fame. I was disgusted. The vultures were circling my house and actually camping in my woods. I couldn't even go home. I had to call Sam and he held me up in one of his vacant apartments on the outskirts of Bon Temps. He had also been watching Tina for me and I was dying to hold something familiar in my arms.

"This is crazy," I told him when he came to bring me a burger basket that night.

"Well those vultures gotta eat sometime," he chimed in. "I get a thrill from denying them service."

I laughed. Sam didn't stay very long but the little bit of time that he could spend with me was treasured. It made me feel like less of a spectacle and more like a human being. I was asleep and I heard a funny scratching noise. Tina was probably picking through what was left of my dinner. This wasn't home and I was willing to bet she could get into the trash can here.

I rolled back over and threw the pillow over my head. It didn't keep me from hearing a heavy thud. I shot up in my bed. It sounded like footsteps but no one knew I was here and Sam was still at the bar. Quietly as I could I got out of bed and headed for the closet where my bags were. The new phone Eric gave me was at the bottom of my bag. It was shiny and bright and could do everything under the sun I just hoped calling 9-1-1 was one of them. was there. I could call for help. The closet was the closest but at least it came with a very sturdy iron to use as a weapon. I plugged it in with my hand tightly covering the red light. I huddled in and began rummaging for it but the footsteps only grew closer.

_'What the hell are you doing?'_ I asked myself.

I was a telepath I didn't have to sit and wait for my attacker to make his move. I could pick them out in his head as he thought them. It would give me a fighting chance. Cautiously I dipped into his mind. That brief glimpse showed me images of barbarism so vile. I gagged. I gagged and I gave myself away. The closet door was ripped open and I saw the outline of a man. It didn't matter that I couldn't see his face this time. I'd seen it so many other times before.

Rene Lenier. He had been such a sweet gentle shy guy. He was engaged to Arlene. He helped raise her children. He was also a psychopath. He grabbed me by my shoulder and I grabbed the first thing I could and swung for the fences. I kicked him somewhere in the vicinity of his genital and ran. I wasn't even by the front door when I felt his breath on my neck. His fingers fisted in my hair and he used the hold to throw me to the floor.

The instant his skin touched me I was screaming. My cries were meant to call help forward but I was screaming because it was all too much, the terror of his prior victims, their desolate deaths, and his sick thrill with all of it. It was too much. The plan he had for me was there, tangled in the noxious cloud.

I fought him hard but my fight only excited him further, made him more vicious. He stopped throwing punches and began bashing my head off the floor in an attempt to knock me out. My vision began fading but I didn't care what happened to me. I just needed him to stop touching me. I needed to stop the poison of his mind from tainting me.

One second I felt his hands tearing at the waistband of my sweats and darkness began creeping in. The next thing, I felt him get flung away from me.

"I got you," a voice called.

I couldn't see but I recognized the change in mental signatures and the gentleness of his touch. A Britlingen had found me which was great timing. I was going to pass out and judging by the unnatural numbing I felt creeping into my body I knew it would be for a while.


	14. Chapter 14

**Earlier that day…**

**Eric**

**Chapter XIV**

To begin with, being awakened while in death's sleep was an irritant second only to silver on flesh. I had no idea why Pam voluntarily did this. I hated every conscious second of the day I had to endure. It was physically and mentally taxing; the earlier in the day, the worse the symptoms. I grew more tolerant as I grew older but, no matter my age I was never exempt from my nature. I was a child of the night. My guards wouldn't wake me unless it was critical. Not life or death but serious enough that they thought it worth a interrupting a day's rest. My thoughts were clouded and my eyes bleary. Batanya was sending a steady low burn into my palm. It wasn't painful, but it wasn't pleasant either. It was meant to help me focus. It took five minutes or so but my body began responding to my commands and the worse of the grogginess was fading.

I looked beside me and Pam wasn't in bed. We had left together and had gone to a safe house on the borders of Michigan after the debacle at the hotel.

"Her people came for her at dawn. Two of ours escorted them back," Clovache said, answering the unspoken question, "They checked in and gave the all clear at noon."

Remaining seated wasn't making me less fuzzy headed. Slowly I got to my feet, swaying slightly. Clovache handed me a blood and my personal cell phone.

"Illeta," he said.

"I seem to have misplaced your wife." my sister said in greeting.

"I don't understand."

"I arranged for food to be brought to her but when the messenger arrived she was already gone. The only scent in the room was hers."

So that meant no one took her. She had left. It was bad enough that I was losing rest over a woman who apparently had a hearing problem; Illeta shouldn't be troubling herself as well. The incident at the hotel had irritated me greatly. I'd told her not to do something and she had disobeyed me. I understood that brash act somewhat but this was deliberate.

"Go back to sleep, Leta," I replied.

"I'm sorry. I should have—"

"All is well," I assured her. "Do not trouble yourself."

I didn't care where she was but her disappearing act left me unable to fulfill a clause in the marriage contract that insisted I adequately protect her. This was something else I expressed last night. From the moment she married me, she would need bodyguards. She'd never been away from home, so I assumed this was the only place she would return to. I hoped to be wrong. The ramifications of her being so careless weren't even worth contemplating. Her small town had been overrun by all manner of reporters. If she didn't know it, she would soon find out.

My head ached, and given the mood I was in, someone—probably Sookie—was liable to get hurt. For her sake I hoped she had a very compelling explanation for her noncompliance on simple tasks. This was her second night as my wife and the second time she had disobeyed me. I didn't have time for such everyday tribulations. She needed a reminder of her place and just what she had to lose.

"Status report," I asked Batanya, hanging up.

"Hellion has a trail," she replied.

"Is there anyone local that can pick them up?" I asked, lying back down. I would send the jet but I needed it to get out of Chicago come first dark.

"New Orleans Police Department has a chopper waiting."

"I want her returned quickly and quietly."

Once I gave the orders I allowed death's sleep to pull me under again.

**~ooooo~**

From the information I'd been receiving at intervals since dark, Hellion had yet to find Sookie. I'd landed in New Orleans and still he had nothing. This was strange for him. Hellion was a tracker. If he'd crossed paths with it once, he would find it as long as it remained in this realm. That he was having trouble finding one human woman was baffling. The delay further irritated me, but I left those matters to my security team. They were good at what they did and there were better things for to give my attention.

I was given a tour of my office the same night. I also met with most of my staff and settled into work. This was like every other high end office building. It was sixty-stories high with floor-to- ceiling glass. I was more concerned about the quadruple computer monitoring system. It allowed me to simultaneously monitor nearly everything I owned. I felt a momentary sense of relief as I settled into my leather-bound chair at my polished mahogany desk. I was finally free to settle in for a while.

"There's a problem," Batanya said, entering my office.

I arched a brow in question. Having issues and unexpected events arise was a normal part of my day. Sometimes it was extreme like the bomb in Chicago, but most of the time it was routine. Batanya always handled it without needing to involve me, now with the exception of Sookie, of course, only because she was yet to be assigned permanent guards.

"Your wife was attacked," she said.

Perfect. "Is she dead?" I inquired. That would be just what I needed.

"No," she replied, "She's beat to shit though, cracked skull, bruised trachea, fractured eye socket, and a broken nose. Hellion needs a medic, a cleanup crew, and a containment team."

So not only was my wife disobedient, she was also a magnet for violence. I was beginning to question how she had made it so far in life with both those qualities. I really thought we had an understanding. I thought she was wise enough to simply stay under my radar and ride out her time as my wife. Apparently I had given her much too much credit. I finally came to the

realization in giving her an inch, she wanted to take a mile. Sookie was most likely attempting to test her limits by defying me. She was going to learn a hard lesson.

"Make it so," I said.

"No can do," she replied, "Two of ours flew out with Pam. They are at least a day away. Hellion is on the scene. Clovache and I are here. Everyone else is holding down the fort."

My guard consisted of ten Britlingens. Each came with a specific skill that made them invaluable. Talented as they were, the minimum to adequately guard a property the size of my house was six. As it was I was stretching them thinly, anything more would compromise the safety of the home entirely.

"I called the French maid," Batanya continued, "As usual she told me to get bent sideways."

The French maid, or Thalia, was a tiny Greek vampire who was older than I. She acquired her nickname during the French and Indian War. She also headed a band of four other vampires. They were vagrants and the most ill-tempered undead in the New World. Old as they were, they had the temperament of drunken sailors. Long ago it had landed them in over their heads. I stepped in and paid their fines, and they were now in my retinue.

Before I had Britlingens, I had the French maid and her band of misfits to help me deflect conflict. The problem was they didn't work well with others. Still, every now and again, I needed to supplement my security with Thalia and her coarse brand of problem-solving skills. She also had a penchant for knife work and I wanted to unleash this on whoever thought it wise

to attack something belonging to me. Britlingens have a strict code, and torture was not part of this.

"Thalia," I said once the line connected.

"Tell me I get to knife someone," she said as her greeting.

"You get to knife someone," I agreed, "Knife them for as long as you want and as slowly as you want."

I connected her with Batanya and went back to work. This time of year there wasn't a lot of moonlight to burn. By two a.m., my wife had been flown back the house. She was not in great shape. Indira, one of Thalia's mates, had to give her blood at some point during transport. The daemon doctor had been summoned. All of this nonsense took me from the office a few minutes early in order to cover my ass, per the marriage contract. I couldn't kill Sookie or, through my own inaction, cause her death. I had to at least confirm that she was receiving adequate care.

The first person I saw as I entered through the main gates of the compound was Thalia. She was sitting cross-legged on the trunk of her blood-red muscle car, smoking a cigarette. Smoke floated from her nose in billowing wisps. Being dead, she couldn't derive any pleasure from the act and the smell had to irritate, but I had yet to see her without a stick between her lips. I ignored the smoke, ignored the fact that her car was parked in my courtyard - half over a flower bed and a knocked over statue. I didn't use her skills because she was polite or mannerly, or even completely sane.

"From what we could gather his ‛I hate vampires so I'm going to strangle teeny human women who consort with them' routine began with his sister," Thalia said as her hello, "There were two others from the small town. He thought to use your wife as a martyr to deter all fang lovers."

She banged on the trunk of her car loudly and in response, a frantic heartbeat and the smell of fear spiked from inside. He screamed and begged, but no one who could hear cared. He reeked of terror, but it wasn't all his. Some of it belonged to my wife as did the majority of the blood, sweat, and tears on him.

"He doesn't want to be my friend," she said in a sing song voice, "Isn't that terrible?"

"You're fucking nuts," Clovache said.

Thalia giggled. Yeah, she had issues, but then again most vampires suffered some kind of mental hang up, me included. I left her to it and continued my on path inside.

Before I entered my wife's suite, Hellion found me in the hall way. "This should have never happened and I take full responsibility," Hellion said, hanging his head, "I couldn't draw a proper bead on her and I should have called it in. I resign, forfeit my full wages, and will arrange immediate deportation."

Britlingens had a one track mind. His charge got hurt so it was his fault. To date this was the very first failure; at least it was in his opinion. I didn't count it against him. You couldn't protect someone insistent on being reckless with their safety. If her attack wasn't a big enough indicator she needed to find her place and play her part, I didn't know what was. Maybe now she would learn. When I told her to do something, it was in her best interest to comply.

"Neither your captain nor I find fault in your actions," I told him, "Your resignation is rejected."

He nodded and left. I looked in, and the daemon was just removing a syringe from my wife's arm. The sutures from her left eyebrow were being removed. Indira's blood had done its work. I could still see some swelling on the left side of her face, but the fracture of her eye socket had been made whole. There was only mild swelling and light scratches. She didn't look nearly as injured as Batanya had described hours ago. Despite her best efforts, any media fallout from her attack had been averted. My wife would be up and about the next day. There seemed to be no harm done. It didn't mean she didn't have things to answer for.

I didn't see Sookie until three days later. I was on my way out, and she was having dinner. I sat at the end of the lengthy table and watched her. If she registered my presence she didn't show it. I wasn't sure if it was a tactic to avoid repercussions of her actions or disrespect. I found I couldn't get a handle on her personality. She was supposed to be introverted, so I expected her to be shy and meek but this didn't align with her flagrant disregard for my word. The fact that I was spending mental energy attempting to discern her personality was odd and irritating.

"Explain to me what discreet evacuation means to you, because I can assure you it doesn't include blaring fire alarms, mass exodus, and flashing lights."

She looked up at me and opened her mouth as if to speak, but I waved my hand for her silence. "Once you explain it you can tell me if I wasn't clear when I said, "while you are out 'take the guards you have been assigned'."

She opened her mouth but again, I waved her off. This time, she bowed her head and I could see the tension in her shoulders. It wasn't my aim to frighten her. I think her attacker had done a good enough job of that. I simply wanted to convey there was no place for future antics like these.

"While we are on the subject, what part of 'stay with Illeta until I send for you' translates into you leaving the safe house and getting yourself beaten to within an inch of your life?"

"I'm sorry," she said raising her head.

"It is done, ju…

"I think I just hallucinated," she continued looking at me.

She did look a bit confused and she had suffered head injury. "I will send for the doctor."

She nodded, "Yes, do that. Maybe she can tell me I didn't just hear you blame me because a psychopath tried to murder me."

There was no way she thought to talk back and be sarcastic while doing it. I narrowed my eyes at her, "If you are looking for my sympathy at being attacked, I have none. In case the attempted bombing at the hotel wasn't a big enough indicator, it isn't one psychopath. It is an entire sect of extremists."

She got up and began walking out of the room. She took several steps before it dawned on me that she was turning her back to be and leaving before she was dismissed, definitely looking to test me. "Sit," the command was given in an icy tone that forced her to comply.

She stopped mid-step, then kept walking. I felt my irritation grow to anger in that small window. She was testing already depleted patience and wasting time I didn't have. "Now," I added.

* * *

**I Know I've been gone longer than what you guys are used to but hang in there. I don't want to promise to come right back **


	15. Chapter 15

**Sookie**

**Chapter Fifteen**

_'Don't do it.'_ I thought to myself. _'Just keep walking. He can kill you ten times before you hit the ground and his muscle chick will bury the body.'_

My common sense agreed. My body was screaming at me. The beating I got from Rene was enough to last me a while. I knew I shouldn't do anything to invite more pain, but I'd gotten smart with a big bad vampire and was still able to walk away. I should have kept on going, but he wanted me to turn around. I was so mad! I didn't know what would happen if I faced him again. I was damned if I did and damned if I didn't, and you know what else? There is something about having a brush with death; it sure makes you more vocal about living!

"Now," he ordered, and I lost it.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" I hissed, turning around slowly. Once I started down that road I couldn't stop. "You choose me to marry knowing full well I didn't and still don't want you. Then you stick me in this pretty bird cage and add velvet cuffs and shiny toys and I'm supposed to do what? Thank my lucky stars?"

I let out a slightly hysterical peel of laughter. I could feel myself moving my arms in an incensed manner like some crazy orangutan, but I just couldn't make it stop. I was having a meltdown. It was one that would probably kill me so I was going to make it count.

"You are older than dirt, so if you weren't rich that would be the real surprise. Oh, and while we are on the subject," I mimicked, imitating his deep tone, "The only way I'm sitting back down and listening to your bullshit is if you want to be Contestant Number Three on 'The Attempted Murder of Sookie Stackhouse' Game Show."

Instinct was screaming at me, and trying to gag me, but I just blasted him off. Every single act of callousness to date was regurgitated during the tirade. God, if only he would yell at me and tell me to shut up, I was sure I would snap out of it, but he didn't. He just kept looking at me with the same cold aloof eyes and utterly benign expression, so I couldn't stop, even after I saw the female Britlingen enter the dining room, I still couldn't shut up. I just included her in the barrage.

"She said discreet evaluation to you, not me, so in reality I didn't have to know what it meant. It didn't apply to me. A zealous sect wouldn't be trying to kill me if I didn't marry you. A lone sociopath who hates vampires wouldn't have attacked me if you weren't my husband. So, if you're looking to point fingers, I bet you have someone on your payroll just for that BECAUSE I'M SURE YOU'RE INCAPABLE OF BLAMING YOURSELF!"

I spun around and began storming out of the room. It was only then I remembered I had medicine waiting on me upstairs that I couldn't take without food. So I had to go back for my dinner. I'll be damned if I wasn't going to get my last meal. It was roasted chicken with a side of wild rice and steamed veggies. It was delicious!

"Oh, by the way, I can read," I added, gathering my plate in my arms, "There is nothing in the marriage paperwork stating I have to be your lap dog. Behind closed doors you don't have to pretend and neither do I."

I knew Eric was a vampire. They were supposed to be cool, detached from the world of the living, but telling me in not so many words that it was my fault I got beat up was plain rude. The absolute slap in the face was while he was talking down to me and blaming me for things that weren't my fault he was looking at his phone. It was as if he was saying, 'you can't afford my undivided attention while I'm belittling you, so I'll share it with whoever is on the phone.'

"P.S. I get it - You're important. You're busy, but you're also dead as a doornail. All you have is time, but the next time I want someone to look down at me, I'll make an appointment."

I was almost out the door a second time when I decided I had a particularly nasty death wish. So I turned back around to tighten the noose around my neck. "You, your money, and fancy cell phone can all go to hell," I looked to where his bodyguard, Ms. Discreet Evacuation, was rubbing the side of her neck as if it hurt, "And you can take your bodyguards with you."

Finally, I was out of breath. I stalked out of the room wishing I had a door to slam behind me. There were thirty-four steps on the grand staircase and I stomped on every single one up to my suite. With my waitressing experience I didn't slosh my drink in my cup or make my plate wobble. Once I got inside my room reason came and so did fear. 'Me and my big mouth,' I thought dismally.

It had to be the head injury that made me tell off a vampire and a crazy powerful daemon from another dimension. I was so dead. I locked the door knowing it wouldn't keep either one out. Then I listened with my other hearing. If he was coming toward or sending someone after me I would at least have a heads up, not that it would do me a fat lot of good. The black hole that signaled Eric's mind began moving but it was only getting farther out of range and the swirling void of the Britlingen soon followed. I ran to the French doors that led to the balcony and watched the rear lights of the black sedan fade.

Letting out a sigh of relief, I moved to the sitting area. The room I was given was the size of my old house. It was the epitome of southern charm and French beauty. There was a hand crafted vanity that was complete with a silk lined stool. The walls were blue and trimmed with gold. Double doors led into a bedroom that was just as extravagant. I didn't even want to look in the closet.

I ate because I had to but as the night wore on I couldn't sleep. It wasn't like the jitteriness of the other nights brought on by vampire blood, with me being angry at how it had been given. Lord knows I didn't want vampire blood anywhere near me - never mind in me! Tonight I was worried. I assured myself I would be fine. Claudine had told me he cared about his image so he wouldn't hurt me.

That rant had been briefly satisfying. The more I thought about my actions the less pleased I was with myself. It wasn't that I regretted anything I'd said. It was my upbringing getting the better of me. Gran had raised a lady and I knew, despite the provocations, she would have been disappointed I'd stooped to the level of someone like Eric.

I would apologize. Who knew? An apology might come with the added benefit of him not wanting to kill me; after all he didn't seem _that_ angry. His bodyguard had shown more annoyance than he. This didn't serve to improve my odds for survival.

Sunset the next day found me nervously pacing the top of the staircase. I knew Eric was here. I could sense the void of his mind somewhere down the hall. My breath caught when I saw him. He was dressed in his usual immaculately fitted suit and tie. He moved with the swagger of a top predator, and was headed directly my way. Crap. I really must have been out of my mind to rave at him like that yesterday.

"There is something you need?" he asked, stopping outside my personal space.

"Um…yes," I took a deep breath, "I apologize. I shouldn't have lost my temper yesterday. Yelling and cursing like that isn't who I am."

"I don't care enough to formulate an opinion on your character either way," he said. There was nothing in his tone to imply he was being mean. He was simply stating fact. "All that matters is you uphold the terms of our union for the length of the marriage." Then he walked away.

I hadn't been deluded enough to think he would apologize as well, but his words told me just how cold he truly was. Nothing I'd said had affected him. I wasn't sure why I thought it would. One such as him would not care what someone like me thought of them. This was a good thing. He wasn't bothered, he wanted me to leave him alone, and stay out of his way. Fine. As he said, the marriage was only temporary.

**~ooooo~**

Eric flaunted me at his side for the world to see while he played Mr. Nice Vampire. I smiled and nodded politely. My fear of flying didn't make an appearance because I was buried so deep in the surreal spectacle of what my life had become. Some nights the sun preceded Eric back to the South. He would be carried into the house in his coffin. At some point that was no longer weird. I sold the lie, but after it passed the last face or flash of cameras, I put it away for the next event.

Night after night, I attended one social event after another. The locations stopped mattering and began to blur. It was just rooms full of empty faces. The people were human and all were vying for Eric's attention, smile, or a handshake. Mostly they wanted him, all of him; in the same way they presumed I had him. To them, I was the luckiest woman in the world! When I allowed myself to think about it, I found it funny; if they only knew the truth, how wrong they all were for thinking this.

Everyone had an opinion about my life. It was the ones who didn't know me that were the most vocal. The Fang Haters had me marked a traitor against my race. According to Steve Newlin, leader of the Fellowship of The Sun, I was corrupting the masses by making the consort of a vampire appear to be a glamorous thing. I was Fangbanger Number One. I'd been tainted by the Darkness and he would help me find the Light if I allowed him.

Sam wrote me and we talked on the phone. Tara was doing well, and saving money to open her boutique. Claudine stopped by once or twice to see how I was adjusting. Jason called to ask for money. He couldn't get a job without people wanting him to do an exposé piece on his sister. Life seemed to be passing me by in a phantasmagoria of nightshades.

The first three months with my beau had led to feelings of being strapped into a car I couldn't control. What I was experiencing was worse. Oh, this was far worse. It didn't feel like I was being led about in a haze. It didn't feel like I was suffocating. It felt like falling. I felt as though I was tumbling head over heels and there were no breaks. I couldn't see the ground, but I knew it was there. I was just too high up. It meant impact would hurt and be much more pain-filled.

I was sleeping less and less, and knew in part, it was due to the late hours and weekly trips cross country, but mostly it was due to the handlers Eric hired to shadow me. They were jarring to my telepathy. I had my shields to protect my mind in order to not be pulled into others' minds, but never realized how much effort it took. When I lived in my little farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, I had the time to mentally rest. Now I was never alone, so I no longer had that respite. Without the chance to lower my shields and rest, I found the tension within me growing tighter and tighter. I knew I was going to snap.

After a day of fitful sleep I was woken by Abigail, the cook. I liked her. She was an older woman who never judged anyone. Our night would begin with her placing a tray of food by the bed side table. Tonight was no different except her mind was buzzing with worry. She thought I was tired and was only getting more so every day. She also knew I wasn't eating much. I tried to smile, but it looked more like a grimace. There were far too many human minds in the house. One was the stylist.

The only person I disliked more than Eric's publicist, Gabby Snow, was the stylist, Nancy Blaire. Gracefully, I endured her even though she thought I wasn't much, thought I was fat, and she was doing her best to capture Eric's attention. She hadn't had any luck yet. When she did, she was welcome to him.

Tonight I was to be attending a vampire event. In comes Nancy in her fashion forward ensemble. The first thing she spied was my dinner. All sorts of red flags went off in her head.

She was counting the calories on my plate! She worried this meal would ruin my chances of fitting into a size six. Good! I didn't care for her or the designer labels. Composing herself, she presented a garment to me.

"Good evening," she said, with false warmth.

The dress had a boat neck. It fell above the knee though the front was modest, it was almost backless. From where I sat, I saw it flowed like water but it would fit like a glove as had all the other ones. In the past few months, I'd lost weight and this made her happy. Apparently it was always a hassle to order designer apparel in a size seven. Most of them maxed out at a six, and were now able to fit.

"Tonight I have something special for the Queen's reception." she continued.

_'If you can still fit it,'_Nancy thought. I tried to not judge people by their thoughts. It was something I'd learned years ago when I began waiting tables. I ground my teeth and pushed my plate away.

She shot Abigail a dirty look and her thoughts were in line with her nasty expression.

_'I've told that idiot maid a thousand times to watch the carbs and sugar. Serving her lemonade knowing she doesn't even know where the gym is in this house. God! This is my first vampire event. Sookie and her huge ass are going to ruin it.'_

Gran could just go ahead and roll over in her grave. I was done rolling over and playing dead up here! This was not how I was raised. More importantly, if I let this continue. I wasn't going to survive this marriage. What I had been doing wasn't coping, it was poisoning me. Stoicism wasn't something I could feign. I'd been trying, and it had turned me into a creature I didn't like. One thing was for certain; I was done and the first person to incur my wrath was Nancy.


	16. Chapter 16

**Eric**

**Chapter Sixteen**

One of the downsides of having to plan my travel around another was more often than not, she ran late. Being a woman meant she just had more to do in terms of preparation. She was also human. I didn't hold it against her; I just made use of the time while I waited. Now while she dressed for the outing at Sophie-Anne's estate, I met with Bobby.

"By years end…" he began.

I was distracted as a scream rent through the house. By his continued speech Bobby didn't hear it, but I did and so did every Britlingen in the estate. The scream had been blood curdling. It was so out of place in the normal order of things in the house. Of course it originated from my wife's suite. I ghosted out of the room and beat Hellion, Damascus, and Clovache to the source.

Batanya, however, was not about to let me pass. "No," she said.

I was about to reply when another scream sounded. Being this close, I recognized the voice. It was Nancy, the stylist. I couldn't smell blood, but she had been screaming bloody murder. My nostrils flared, and I could feel power so normally cloaked and controlled dance up my spine. The only other person in there with her was my wife.

I realized something a few months back. There was something wrong with me. It could have been some glitch of my old age or a subconscious self-destructive notion, I couldn't say. In choosing Sookie, I had unknowingly tied myself to what was probably the only creature in the world that had no regard for what or who I was.

Humans fawned over me. Vampires feared me. Creatures of nearly every species never deigned to cross me. I had my Maker to thank for my reputation. Appius Livius Ocella would forever be known to the vampire world as "The Harbinger." A Roman soldier during the time of Christ, he witnessed what it was to be a God, a legend. He was gifted as some vampires are, but his gift for detecting extra sensory abilities couldn't have been bestowed upon a more ill-suited soul. In his madness for true immortality, he plunged Eastern Europe into an age of darkness and he used his children to do it.

Having been associated with him, no one disrespected me. I'd forgotten what it was like to be the recipient of direct and flagrant insult. I was ashamed to say I did not react well. For the first time in ages my temper had gotten away from me because of it. Since then, whenever Sookie was present the unspent hostility wasn't far behind. She was a no one, from nowhere, but she said things that had struck me, and I was still nursing my grudge.

"What has she done now?" I asked, still fuming.

I could hear more shouting. It was all Nancy; either she had lost her mind and was arguing with herself or Sookie was terrorizing her and doing it silently. After I'd witnessed her tantrum not too long ago, somehow I doubted the latter presumption was correct.

Batanya grabbed my arm and began dragging me in the opposite direction. I didn't resist. "What is with you?" she asked, rubbing at her neck.

"Her insolence is beyond galling," I replied, calming as fast as I could. "All she has to do is sit down, shut up, and smile. This seems to be entirely beyond her."

"Do you want me to kill her?" the Britlingen asked - point blank.

"It won't look good to have a marriage end so quickly, plus I'll have to pay a huge fine and begin the search all over again." I said while rubbing my eyes. "She's not worth the hassle."

I knew Batanya could make it look like an accident but…I just hated feeling like I was giving Sookie the satisfaction. It rankled in a way I couldn't imagine. By wanting her dead, I was admitting she bothered me. Nothing she said should have ever gotten to me but it had.

The captain of my guard ran a hand over her spiky dark hair. "Something's gotta give; she's not good for you. Up until three months ago I forgot I had this," she turned her neck to the side and showed me a containment seal. "Now every time you see her face, it burns."

This was her special ability. With my blood she tattooed her neck with a small circular mark resembling a labyrinth. It alerted her to the increases my power radiated. She could siphon enough from me to the point where I would not present a danger to others. She was also the only creature in the world that wouldn't get fried in the process.

Of the dozen of us who had come and gone at the hands of Ocella, all had been gifted in some way. Leta was telekinetic. Asha could command and communicate with animals. Mikah had the gift of making himself invisible. I had an affinity for lightning. Of the dozen, only Leta and I were left, but it was not only the two of us who suffered.

"Greatness," as he'd once said, "lies between madness and death."

In order to tap into our gifts, Ocella had pushed our minds beyond the brink of what anyone should ever endure. Only after he had nearly killed our bodies and broken our minds, only when our souls were barren and our hearts were bare did he turn us. For it was then that the innate talents we held shone brighter. It was effective in creating weapons but it left our minds in an eternally fragile states.

I was powerful, but I had little control over how to use my abilities once I was free from my Maker's control. When I got angry, my power was simply uncontainable. Only Ocella had been able to keep the indiscriminate monster he'd created on a leash. The angrier I became, the more powerful I was, but I also became the greatest danger to all of those nearest me.

This was the reason why I always had to remain in control. It was the reason why I was determined to never allow anything to shake my cool. This was why I had my army of Britlingens. They weren't here to protect me; I didn't need it, they were here to protect the rest of the world from me. They were a necessity, a fortress, to keep those who attempted to get close enough to affect me. I couldn't risk any upset caused by unpredictability in the fluctuations of my emotions. That would truly be a really bad day all around. Sookie, however; now appeared to be an automatic trigger.

"I'm fine," I told Batanya.

I rubbed my eyes again as I found my cool and centered myself. I couldn't allow an insignificant human to rile me.

We both looked up as Hellion and Damascus exited Sookie's suite. Clovache followed behind them carrying Nancy from the room. She looked shell-shocked and bereaved, but otherwise unharmed considering someone who only minutes before had been screaming bloody murder.

I arched a brow. "What happened?" I asked.

"She's a monster!" Nancy wailed, "Look! Look what she did!" She held out a red dress to me. It had been stabbed and shredded repeatedly with what appeared to be a fork and was sporting food stains to prove it.

"She cut the dress," I deduced.

"Murdered it! Limited edition…only four were made." The woman began weeping. She clutched the tattered garment to her chest as if it were her first born child, "And the shoes, they were twenty-seven hundred dollar Zanottis! She killed them! Just hacked them to bits."

One human branded another a monster because she destroyed apparel. This was what qualified for hysterics these days? There were some things I thought I would never see, but the list was getting shorter by the day. I couldn't even begin to understand this debacle, yet I found I was strangely amused though I wasn't entirely over my irritation.

I turned to Nancy and held her eyes with mine. I watched her face go blank and then I planted the suggestion. "It's alright," I said pulling at her mind, "It was just a bad dream, go back to sleep." Relief eased her features making her look less crazed and her eyelids drooped.

"I'm going to talk to her," I said, heading toward my wife's room.

"Eric," Batanya called, walking behind me. "I seriously wouldn't recommend that."

Sookie's outburst may have caught me off guard the last time but no longer. Now that I thought about it, it was most likely the vampire blood she was given that made her so erratic and out of character. The first dose of it into a human's system was unpredictable. I surmised she had not had a pleasant mental reaction to the substance.

She had apologized, after all, for her fitful behavior rather quickly. It wasn't her, but now I was realizing I wasn't sure what was her. I'd assumed Niall had given firm warning at just how she was playing with her life. Prior to these last few days, she had behaved herself for almost three months now. It wasn't long enough if you asked me. I was demanding her obedience for at least five years.

All of this sounded fine except it didn't explain her altercation with the stylist. Hellion and Damascus had never had any trouble while working on her detail. She was polite and liked to venture out in very low-key guises. They thought her to be quite nice, and very quiet. This fit into precisely what her background check uncovered. The human staff I hired all liked her, though they felt she didn't need much. Everyone else liked her and she was amicable to them. It seemed I was the exception, and for the first time, being the exception left me feeling it wasn't a good thing.

I adamantly refused to believe I was the cause of drawing out the unpleasant aspect of Sookie's character. If this was indeed the cause, it meant she was the only person who could tamper with my self-control. As it stood now I was teetering, every time I let her agitate me I slipped a little more down that slippery slope…I wasn't sure I could keep from falling. Killing her would save me the risk of her pushing myself control on a daily basis. But also made me feel like a coward, by killing her I was admitting that she was mentally stronger than I was.

"I can handle it," I told her.

"I don't like this," she said, stepping aside. She didn't have to.

I entered Sookie's suite. She was wearing a peachy little robe that was riding up so high it barely covered her thighs. She was seated on the floor and her human maid, Abigail, sat across from her painting her nails. They were both laughing with their heads close together. Before this moment, I'd never seen my wife smile or laugh. I just assumed she enjoyed being miserable in order to show her malcontent for the marriage, but this didn't seem to be the case either. It didn't look like a warped happiness, as though she'd been enjoying the lasting thrill after having traumatized Nancy. She just looked content.

Both women saw me as they looked up and I watched as their smiles faded. Abigail got up and gathered the dinner tray, mindful of the polish Sookie had just applied to her nails.

"I'll come back and do your hair, Miss."

"I told you to call me Sookie," she said standing, "And that would be great, thank you."

After Abigail left, it was just Sookie and me. She looked at me with an almost identical manner mirroring our first altercation. I made sure I had placed the necessary control on my temper before I addressing her.

"Clearly you have a problem. Again," My tone was calm and reassuring. From my experience, humans respond in the tones to those in which they've been addressed. "Tell me what it is and we can resolve it in an agreeable manner."

Sookie rolled her eyes, long and hard to insure I received the full effect. I did but refused to show it. This was harder than I ever possibly imagined. Even having discovered my near-exile hadn't upset me so much. That was more likely because I had a solution for it, but this? I didn't have a solution for her that wouldn't set me back and cost me an arm and a leg.

"Agreeable," she asked, "You'd love it if I bought into that bullshit wouldn't you? Well, I can't because I know better, so spare me."

Control is never really lost. It is, however; transferred. 'Do not give her control,' I chanted mentally. 'She is no one.'

It apparently didn't work so well because Batanya entered the room with a supreme look of 'I told you so'. Damn it! I knew I had to leave but again, I just refused to let her have the victory.

"You can have a solution to your problem or you can have an audience for your tantrums, but I refuse to be both."

"Of course not," she sneered, "You're so busy. Too busy to realize that you have a telepath trapped in a house full of busy buzzing human minds." Her disgust at the obvious oversight was apparent. "If that isn't bad enough you keep me up until dawn. I'm chronically jet-lagged but when I get back, I can't sleep because you hired people to kiss my ass and wipe it for me. Their minds are in my head all day long."

Most of this was directed at identifying her problem so I still had some control left but not much. Her sneer was testing me. It was because it was something she reserved just for me. "I see," I said, and I actually did.

I've never met a telepath and I hadn't cared to learn much about this one. She could manage her ability, so much so that she had passed for normal. There were no signs she couldn't control the influx of the open minds around her. Had she not told me I wouldn't have known what she was. I suspected this was why Niall wasn't aware until I'd disclosed it. I hadn't stopped to think the additional humans in the home could cause her unrest. I had done it simply to try to assist and help her acclimate to this new life.

"I want your time with me to be as easy as it can be given the circumstances. I will no longer allow them in the house while you sleep."

She eyed me for a long moment as if she didn't believe what I said. "That was an oversight and it was not my intent that you suffer."

"Thank you," she said.

I should have left it at that, but I was curious to what had caused her murderous acts against the designer. Addressing this might be helpful to simply reinforce the behaviors. Her persistent state of sleeplessness had caused her to act out tonight; like vampire blood had caused her to behave out of character the last time.

"What did you do the stylist?"

"Chapter sixteen, Section three in the contract; I objected to her choice for my evening wear as is my right."

Yes, I'd say. I was fighting a smile. It was the most confusing thing. Amused as I was, I still wasn't entirely over my irritation with her.

Sookie was leaving the living area and heading into her bed chamber. I'd never watched her walk away before. I mean I have, but I'd never quite enjoyed the view. The idea never crossed my mind. Maybe it was the robe or her impassioned swagger, or the sway of her hips and the way she held her head. I couldn't say. I watched her go with a secret smile on my face and a hunger in my loins. Both had been absent for ages.

It wasn't just the way the woman looked leaving the room. I was now finally taking notice of her scent. It so deeply saturated this area that was all her own. I could pick out the traces of the Britlingens, both Hellion and Damascus. I could set aside that of Nancy and Abigail and even the beautician Emmanuel. All that remained was a soft floral scent. It wasn't exactly Fae. It was pleasant, like a rose bush after a light spring shower. It was airy, alluring, but not too strong. Wrapping my lips around a bottle of blood with this taste in my mind would be hard.

When she reemerged from the room, my body took full attention of my wife's. To replace the red dress she had destroyed Sookie opted for a short white satin one that sported lace work down the sides. Seventy years ago it would have been considered undergarments. The way she wore it, it was temptation. The thin straps and asymmetrical neckline displayed the perfection of her breasts. Her back was bare, offering a titillating view of her shoulders and the arch of her back.

Other than the smoky liner on her eyes, blush, and blood red lips matching her shoes, she was devoid of makeup. Her hair was pulled into a neat and simple ponytail. She was adorned in simple flawless diamonds I'd gifted her. I shook off my hunger for her and focused on my current problem.

Looking at the way she commanded this small a space, the night was going to be difficult. Vampires weren't attracted to black. They lived in the shadows. White and red were head turners. Normally I only needed Batanya and Clovache, but Hellion and Damascus would be needed to accompany us for the Queen's first joint venture with her new husband. Given Sookie's present attitude I could only hope they would be enough.

I left the room as Abigail returned.

"What was that?" My bodyguard asked once we were out in the hall, "You were hot and cold."

I had no idea what was wrong with me. There was no question that something was amiss. It was a testament to how old I was that it took verbal sparring with a woman to get me to notice her curves. It took her terrorizing another woman for me to notice her scent. Noticing those things hadn't extinguished my irritation I realized. I had added attraction and thirst to my list. This woman was driving me crazy, well crazier.

* * *

**A positive interaction is long overdue and I felt like we finally get some background on the cool customer Eric is in this Fic. So what do you think? **


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: If Eric's adoration of Sookie seemed sudden, it's because it was supposed to. There was nothing cataclysmic or premeditated that I could fathom that would systematically change/ thaw this cold hard S.O.B.****The only way in was a sneak attack that caught his heart when he didn't think it was worth guarding, when he thought he was truly dead inside. ****So, gear up ladies and gentlemen!**

* * *

**Eric**

**Chapter Seventeen**

I was beginning to think Niall might have had a hidden plot when making our alliance and this was it: present me with a bride who would so infuriate me to the point where I would lose my patience and kill her, thus violating the terms of the union and subjecting myself to a huge fine, nor could I get a premature divorce. It would result in paying a smaller, yet still obscene fine. The media attention from that wasn't something I wanted to deal with.

If this was indeed the plan, it was working because I was at least thinking about killing her! Divorcing Sookie would give her satisfaction and I simply refused. Technically, she wasn't doing anything I told her she couldn't. She hadn't done anything to publically embarrass me, distort my image, or violate our contract. My human approval rating was at an all-time high and that was how I needed it to remain.

Nevertheless to say in every other way possible, my wife bent the rules and managed to indirectly defy me to show her displeasure. To my complete embarrassment, I actually welcomed this more than her indifference and obviously open scorn. There was far too much of that. It was frustrating to realize I had no idea how to prevent this either. The confusion increased my irritation making me want to kill her all the more. At the same time, it did nothing to defuse my hunger for her body or her blood.

I'd been fighting my attraction for three months since it was awakened and it wasn't fading. When I wasn't with Sookie out at an event, I was thinking of her and what stunt she might pull. Since the incident with Nancy she had been behaving. Perhaps getting sleep was making her less volatile. That shouldn't disappoint me. It should also kill my attraction but it did neither. On the other hand she still argued with me every chance she got.

Tonight I was at the office watching my secretary. She was attractive from the amount of attention she garnered from men and the envy she got from women. I was forcing myself to see what they all saw but I couldn't change my scope of vision, damn.

The phone rang pulling me from my thoughts. I answered eagerly until I realized it was Thalia. To say the least, that was a problem in and of itself.

"We dropped by for a bite," she said in hello, "And the donor house is empty. I take it it's open season."

"You are forbidden to hunt," I reminded them, "You violate your plea bargain with the Pythoness anywhere near me and I will hand deliver you to her myself."

"As long as we remain on the premises it's not technically hunting; more like hide and seek," a voice said, "Peek-a-boo even, the first person to find or catch their human gets to drain them."

I recognized the speaker as the Irish vampire of her band, Clancy. He was fairly amiable until someone mentioned anything British. Then he reminded everyone of why he fit in so well with Thalia's group of misfits.

"Yes," Indira chimed in enthusiastically, "But what happens if there's a tie?"

"You share," Maxwell said, "And then I suppose it becomes a race for who can sip the fastest."

"Well that's no fun," Thalia complained, "I hate eating in a hurry."

"What've you got to on about?" Clancy scoffed, "Your raping strangler is still alive and you won't share. I say you should be disqualified from the games."

"What games?" I asked because I had no such thing going on. "There are no games."

None of them seemed to hear. They were caught in their montage of wicked games and bloody sport.

"He's my friend," Thalia replied defensively. In her book they were the best of friends. That human had attacked my wife the day after we married. Thalia was going on six months of torturing him now. "Plus I didn't say I wouldn't share; I just said his bloods' septic."

No vampire signs up for blood from a festering source. Another anomaly of Thalia's was she ingests tainted blood. Seeing she's had the human for so long, his wounds had to be infected as was his blood. It was hard to say what effects, if any, it may have had on her. It couldn't improve her attitude was my guess.

"Same shite," Clancy bit back, "Unless you fancy seeing my arse as I run about naked, shouting ballads of Cú Chulainn again,"

She giggled. "No one's interested in your freckled fanny and it's not my fault you can't handle your sauce."

Their banter continued and there was even a fight between Clancy and Indira over a hypothetical meal one had caught and the other had stolen. All the while Thalia and Maxwell continued discussing the rules of an open hunt that hadn't been sanctioned. I stayed on the phone for a few reasons, one of them being if they were busy talking about it they wouldn't be doing it at the moment.

"Enough," I ordered. Instantly silence fell on the other end of the phone. "No, to all of that. No peek-a-boo or hide and seek or whatever else you want to dress as hunting." I said before they could get carried away. "In fact don't do anything until I call you back."

I hung up. I needed to contact Batanya. I found it very hard to believe that all the donors were gone and I wasn't hearing it from her first. As it turned out, I didn't have to call her. She was walking into my office as her phone rang.

"It's your wife," she began.

That didn't surprise me. To be honest it pleased me at least until I learned of what she had done.

"She terminated the contracts of all the donors and apparently gave them all her jewelry as well as the stash of petty cash in her room safe." She continued.

"She. Did. What?" I growled icily.

Six months of marriage, and I still had no idea how to deal with her. When she bought garlic scented candles and silver hair clips a few weeks ago, I'd been amused. At the moment, however; my sense of humor was nowhere to be found. I felt my eyes sting as a power that I couldn't control struggled to get free.

"How could the guards allow this?"

"She gave an order," Batanya said. I knew if an error had been made anywhere it hadn't come from the Britlingens or any guard under her charge. "They had to follow. The single soul who would overrule her is you and she acted quickly with that in mind."

"Fix it," I told Batanya, "I don't care how."

"It's already done."

I arched a brow at her, "There have been other incidents and I haven't known about them?"

"Yes," she replied.

"How many?" I asked.

She rubbed at her neck and frowned. By the look on her face I knew she didn't want to answer, yet she did. She reached into the side pocket of her black military style pants and fished out a note pad.

"Most recently," she began, "She's been giving away her wedding presents. We find them and just return them. With the exception of Abigail, she put her entire staff on paid indefinite leave. She gave them their choice of her jewelry as a consolation prizes."

There was no need to be angry. Truly there was no need. These things my wife had done were well within her right to do. I shouldn't be seeing it as a perfectly targeted way to antagonize me. I also shouldn't care she was giving away wedding presents I'd bought as if they were nothing. What should I care? They were hers to do with as she wished. It shouldn't anger me…but it did. I felt like she had done all of this as a way to show I was somehow beneath her as were my gifts to her.

"Is that all," I asked tampering my rage.

"No, that was last month," she said flipping a page, "This month …"

"She left her phone at a restaurant and it was stolen. A waitress was trying to sell it to a reporter," she said flipping through her notes, "Last week she told the publicist to go fuck herself. Nancy also caught another verbal and near physical assault. She put in her resignation. "

Batanya could feel that my anger was rising. Like a crimson tide it flowed through me and painted that patch of skin on her neck.

"Recommendations?" I asked coolly.

I didn't have any; not a one. Whatever my Head of Security chose I would have to agree to go with it. I had to trust her. Over the years Batanya had worked to keep me contained. I was partially out of control half the time when Sookie was around. Trusting myself was no longer an option. Somehow, someway, I'd lost sight of the objective. It shifted from expecting Sookie to obey me to wanting her to like me; at the very least to be partial to me. I had received nothing resembling this. If she wasn't ignoring me, she was openly challenging me over the most miniscule of things. Better yet, she was winning these disputes by default! Batanya would feel me losing control and step in and then I would have to leave the room.

"Talk to her," Batanya said, "She's going crazy living your life round the clock. She wants out."

I snarled at the suggestion but it wasn't because of the hassle and bad publicity. It was because Sookie belonged to me and she wasn't leaving.

"Will you please?" Batanya said wincing. "I know she can't have out but she is making me crazy. I recommend letting her have something familiar and less…intense for a while. Have the witch summon Shadow Wraths for her and tell her to go on vacation."

"I'm to reward her for this sort of behavior?" I said.

"It's either this or kill her," she said, rubbing her neck, "No need to apply a permanent solution to what could be a temporary problem."

Here was where my confusion lay: I wasn't sure if Sookie herself was a temporary problem OR if I was just looking to apply a permanent solution prematurely. I didn't think this was so. After all she purportedly was sleeping better and seemed more active during the day. I saw photos of her in newspapers as she went for walks in the Quarter or took boat tours on the bayou. All of this was feeding my underlying feelings of hostility toward her. On the other hand, it didn't explain why she couldn't behave.

"No," I told Batanya, "She will learn her place and play her role until she loves it."

For the moment, Sookie was carefully towing the line. This was amusing for me, but I knew she wouldn't leave it at that. She would keep pushing until she did cause damage. This was not acceptable. I made my way home thoroughly intent on putting her in her place. This time would be much easier because I found no humor in her latest stunt. I was also infuriated; she had had so many others that the Captain of the Guard felt necessary to hide it from me.

I wasn't going to talk to Sookie. Talking to her was pointless. The woman was beyond sense and attempts to reason were useless. She also hadn't done anything to deserve what Batanya was suggesting. Why should I offer her a chance for a reprieve when she had given me none? I left early that night with a different purpose in mind.

The estate was pitch dark. The absolute lack of artificial lighting was meant to blind humans. My guards and I moved with ease. I caught sight of Hellion and Damascus where they stood sentry, perched on Sookie's balcony.

"Are you going to kill her?" Hellion asked.

"Do you have anything to say in her defense?" I wondered out loud.

He nodded. "She doesn't understand that the donors were paid and are under contract. She didn't know it ensured their housing and safety. It is my understanding that she acted under the notion that they were here against their will."

"Did you tell her otherwise?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yes,"

"Then she has no excuse,"

He nodded but left without further comment on the matter. Why was I looking at him with something other than trust? Why was I thinking Sookie preferred him to me? It was more than likely because probably she did. Apparently she liked anyone who wasn't me. This shouldn't matter. He was, after all, her bodyguard and as such, spent more time with her and had grown to have more patience with her and her crap.

I was her husband and I didn't have the time. In fact, I decided to awaken her by shaking, and also shaking some sense into her stubborn mind. Her actions, the things she'd been doing, were the stuff of which attorneys begged for – Lawsuits were just waiting to happen. Sookie had fired employees with impunity; she hadn't given severance pay, was guilty of violating terms of their contracts, and terms of all their agreements. Sookie's gifting of her jewelry and cars made these employees appear to be guilty of theft.

I headed into Sookie's room accompanied only by Batanya. "About that huge fine you'll have to pay in a little while," Batanya reminded, "Do you want the number in Euros or dollars?"

I didn't respond. It didn't take me long to find the woman who was the cause of my current fury. Being as we hadn't had any events to attend, I knew Sookie would be asleep at this time of night. There was a verbal barrage on the tip of my tongue as I entered the room in which she'd barricaded herself.

With one look at Sookie's sleeping form, all of my fury went up in smoke. It crumbled to dust more quickly than a vampire meeting the Final Death. The face that normally held disdain or forced happiness was gone. In its place was something so genuine, pure, and heartrendingly lovely that I was disarmed, immediately and absolutely. I was left staring at her with my mouth open.

Batanya had been prepared to help me out for sometime. I could see the dagger in her hand. My skin was braced for the sting of it, but as I regained my own control, she appeared confused. We eyed one another speculatively. I obviously owed her a clear explanation of the 360 mood change; I'd gone from slightly homicidal to adoring within a span of 10 seconds! This was the first time in the last six months where I felt absolutely no irritation toward Sookie...My anger simply drained at the sight of her.

I watched her for several minutes trying to reconcile what I was feeling for the woman who had caused it. Moving closer to the bed, I saw a book cradled to Sookie's chest. Upon closer inspection I noticed it was a photo album. I wasn't able to see anything more, though I found myself curious. I saw the dried tears on her face, bringing a frown to mine. That troubled me a lot more than I thought it would.

I was a good husband to my wife, patient, indulgent and lenient. I let her have free reign at home and I let her get away with one tantrum after another. She had wealth, safety and security. She had nothing to cry over. The fact that she had cried herself to sleep made me angry at her. I knew if I was being at all reasonable, it shouldn't but I had been beyond my normal scope of reason for some time now and so I was very much perturbed.

When Sookie looked at me with scorn and disregarded my presence it was apparently sincere and not a product of her forced marriage to me. She was indifferent. It heightened my feeling of inadequacy. I knew she had everything any one woman would need. Certainly she had more than she ever had before but still she cries herself like an abused child after a full day of being a pain in my ass.

Odd as it might seem I didn't think Sookie cried. Of course that was ridiculous, everyone cried, especially human women. I'd just thought she kept those feelings and used the energy to antagonize me at every turn. I was caught between simply taking a seat and watching her in this new found light and pulling the blanket over her and leaving her in peace. Not wanting to wake her I covered her with a blanket and left the room.

"Why was she crying?" I asked Hellion, when I caught up with him outside.

"She was looking inside a picture book," Damascus said.

"What else makes her cry?"

"She cries after talking to Sam sometimes," Hellion added.

"After she talking to the human, Tara, she cries," Damascus concluded, "Not much, but always after she looks inside picture book, she cries."

They left and I found myself back in my wife's room, watching her sleep. Sookie was curled into a little ball on the far left side of her bed. Her position displayed the vastness of the mattress and her loneliness. While lethal creatures hung about her she slept as if nothing of the world could touch her. It painted her in a light that as angelic as it was sad. Unlike her ire and defiance I took no pleasure from her pain. I didn't know what she wanted. Hell, I didn't even know what I wanted with her. Caught between wanting to kiss and kill her, and being unable to do either I did what Batanya had suggested.

* * *

*****When I was dreaming up this Fic this was my turning point chapter. I so loved having Eric having no idea what to do with his emotions*****


	18. Chapter 18

**Sookie**

**Chapter Eighteen **

I had to admit to myself that irritating Eric was at the core of many things that I did these days. It sounded immature and stupid but it was sometimes the highlight of my day. He could keep me but he couldn't make me like it. It helped me distinguish the days because they ran a risk of bleeding together.

My efforts were unnoticed and so was I. I gave away things he bought and he didn't care. I didn't care either, I didn't want to be bought. When I tried to pick a fight with him and shake his cool Batanya entered the room and Eric followed her out. That pissed me off a lot, like I wasn't allowed to argue with her precious employer. They would stroll out of the room calmly and she would look at me as if I was a threat to a 6'5 Viking vampire. The idea was laughable.

These days I would wake up to find Hellion and Damascus hanging around. If I went out they planned the route but otherwise they left me alone. I enjoyed the normalcy of it but today the house was eerily quiet. Abigail was nowhere to be found. I helped her with chores and we often ate together. I wondered around searching for her. There was nothing to hear but the sounds of my sandaled feet.

I had a thought that made me worry. What if Eric had blamed me freeing his food on everyone else? I knew they were meant to 'handle' me. But I'd never been much for doing what I was told. He might have held them responsible. By that afternoon I had concocted all the worst case scenarios. Poor Abigail was dead and Hellion and Damascus were hanging by their thumbs in some dungeon.

"Abigail!" I called running towards her. I stopped just outside her personal space when I realized I was acting like a nut.

"Sookie," she asked cautiously. "Is everything all right?"

"Yeah," I said "I was wondering where you were."

She pointed to a note pad by the coffee maker where a bright yellow sticky note told me she was at the store. We laughed at my silliness.

"I thought I should make you something special for dinner since your husband will be joining you."

I stilled. A vampire wanted to join me for dinner. It was likely to be my last supper. It had to be the only reason why he was taking time out of his schedule. I didn't let on how nervous I was, not even after the sun set. I was going to have to face him sometime. Before dinner I went up to get changed. When I opened the door out of my room, there he was.

I had to say that to date I was yet to see Eric look anything less than immaculate. This evening was no different. The suit was heather grey. It complemented the light coloring of his eyes and hair. The black shirt worn under the vest gave off an air of importance without being intimidating. His tie was silver and that little bit of silk tied it all together. His hair was brushed back but he was yet to pull into a ponytail. The man looked like he'd walked off the runway, then fallen into a GQ catalogue, and somehow landed in this hallway by accident.

"I believe you have a diamond and emerald set that would complement that dress," he said in hello.

He eased off the wall and came to stand directly in front of me. He was just too much; his beauty, his power, and his commanding demeanor. He seemed to suck the air out of the space around him. I somehow felt inadequate which made me angry. He was nothing to me and I shouldn't want his validation. More importantly I would never get it.

If he thought he was going to get to watch me sweat it wasn't going to happen. "We both know I don't have it anymore so just get on with it," I snapped.

"With what?" he asked calmly.

I proceeded to mock his manner of speech and baritone because he wanted to play stupid. "Explain to me why you cannot—fill in the blank—it is not difficult but it seems entirely beyond you. Do you require assistance with—inserted simple task—?" I prompted him. That was usually how it began. Then I would kindly tell him in not so many words to get bent.

"You are immensely confrontational and extremely combative," he stated.

I shrugged, bypassing him. If that was all he wanted then I wouldn't have to have him ruin my dinner. "I don't care enough about you for your opinion on my character to matter."

"I said something similar to," he murmured to himself.

It wasn't like he was going to apologize nor did I expect him to. I was still kind of waiting for him to start with the script. He didn't. Nor did he leave me alone. Instead he walked along side me as I headed down to dinner. He pulled out my chair and I just watched him.

"There is something wrong," he asked.

Yeah, I think you're going to kill me. "No." I sat, very aware that he was behind me as he pushed the chair in. Eric took the seat across from mine as opposed to the other end of the table. He was sipping his blood and I ate somewhat self-consciously.

"You have new guards," he said looking at his phone.

"What happened to Hellion and Damascus?"

"Unlike Hellion and Damascus, they are summoned by name. If you have need, you will call them and they will come. Otherwise they will be absent." Eric continued, "They are called Cypher and Lynx. They are Shadow Wraiths, nothing like Britlingens. It leaves you free to be alone but that means your movements should be inconspicuous."

Oh, so he wasn't killing me, this was a business meeting. I wondered how long in advance he had booked me into his schedule. He was probably counting the minutes until he could be doing something useful with his time.

"I do not expect to see you this week," he concluded, rising.

"You're kicking me out?" I asked.

"You say that as if you want to stay," he said.

I opened my mouth to give a snarky comeback but really what could I say? There were events on my calendar but he was giving me an out and I would take it no matter how temporary.

"It is my theory that you will benefit from spending time with family and friends," he said. "I will see you next week but if there is anything you require before then, call me directly. I dread your methods of problem solving."

I wasn't sure if I should be insulted.

**~ooooo~**

There were no reporters and there was no media circus. Bon Temps was recognizable again. I drove eagerly to my little haven and felt so free. It was just like I'd remembered. When I left home for New Orleans I paid Terry Bellefleur to tend the grounds. Oddly enough now that I had the money to I didn't want to change a thing about my childhood home. It was my only sanctuary.

The only people that knew I was here were Sam and my brother. Jason was busy but I had dinner with Sam and I spent a lot of time tending to whatever chores I had. I even created some for normalcy sake. Who would come to piss all over that but some unknown fairy? If that wasn't odd enough he was a doppelgänger for my brother. Had I not been telepathic or known Jason so well, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. So much for normal; it lasted all of three days. Not too shabby, considering I was married to a vampire, had demon bodyguards and had fairy in my blood line.

"Look," I began. "I'm vacation so whatever shenanigan this is it can wait till next week."

He stared at me for a long minute and his face broke into a huge, disbelieving grin. "How old are you?" he asked, stepping across the threshold and ignoring my bemused expression.

"What?" I asked, baffled.

"How long have you been alive?" he said in explanation, "In human years." The 'duh' was heavily implied.

"I'll tell you when I know who you are." I had enough weirdos from the other side of reality swooping into my life. The responsible thing to do was begin carding them.

"Dermot, your grandfather's twin brother."

Well, at least he was direct. I would take that as a good sign. "Twenty-four years," I said. "Want me to do the math in cat years too?"

He broke into a fit of laughter so great he half-reclined and half-fell into my favorite arm chair. There wasn't a damn thing funny, at least not from my view.

"Give me your hand," he said wiping tears from his eyes. "There is no way he could have made such an error."

I had no intention of complying with a damn thing unless I was told the reasons behind all of this. "Who and why?" I asked, folding my arms across my chest.

"Ada," he said. "You are not at all what you appear. He gave you away because he could not see, but I can and if what I suspect is true…," he chuckled and shook his head like someone who knew the best part of a movie was coming. "I would love to be the one to tell him."

"What does that mean? 'He can't see,'" I was trying to infer the literal meaning, but I knew their eyes worked just fine. It left me at a loss. "Claudi..." I cut myself off before I finished saying her name. While I didn't hate her, I knew I couldn't trust her completely.

"You can say her name. She is too young to hear," he said, moving toward my kitchen. I swear he really could be Jason; two seconds in my house and he was aiming to raid my fridge! Seeing he was a good source of information, I didn't protest.

"Well, she said she couldn't see either."

He sniffed my hair. It was probably strange that I wasn't weirded out by that. "Neither could my father. I think it's because you carry the cloak."

"I don't have any cloak," I said.

"I carry the sight beyond sight," he said. "And I say you do."

Okay, I wasn't sure how to argue that one. So I didn't. He seemed to dislike Niall, which was right up my alley. Looking down at where he had a loaf of bread and a jug of milk under his arm, I decided to do the smart thing before he found my stash of cookies. I made him a sandwich. It was a good way to get to know him, and have him tell me things I needed to know.

"So…what do you want?" I asked him.

"To see who was taking my place," he replied, eating the banana that was supposed to go with my oatmeal. I hazarded a guess. "You wanted to marry the vampire?"

He chuckled seeming genuinely amused, "No one can anger Ada like me," he explained. "Fintan and I were twins. It is fitting in many ways that your brother would resemble us almost identically, and you have our natural flare for defiance. If you gave me your hand, I could gauge what else we have in common." He smirked as an expression filled with mischief lit his face and wriggled his fingers at me in open invitation.

I wanted to know what he suspected. Figuring I had more to gain than lose, I held out my hand. His hand felt softer than mine and I wasn't sure if I was self-conscious about it. Perhaps because he was a fairy I could cut myself some slack. He clasped my right hand in both of his hands. There was simultaneous warmth that shot up my arm. I stilled at the alien sensation, but didn't pull away. I felt fuzzy, not in my head but in my body, then my shields crumbled. I felt my sixth sense shoot from me with explosive force. I yanked my hand away as the pressure of it rose to pain.

"Incredible," he whispered, stepping back. "I have something that was meant for you."

Dermot had gone, but my head was still spinning. It turns out telepathy was the least of my issues. At least I wouldn't have to face them all until I was twenty-seven. So, I did myself a favor. I wouldn't think about them now either! Instead I sat looking at the little bag containing something called a cluviel dor.

The little round stone was warm and seemed to have a pulse. I could sense how very magical it was, but I wasn't sure how to use it. Dermot had given it to me and then he had left with strict instructions to keep it hidden and tell no one of its existence. I wouldn't have accepted it from him had he not given me the gift accompanied with a letter from Gran. This letter came from, and was, a part of the woman I had loved most in the entire world.

In order to get my mind off my grandmother, her letter, and this magical charm as well as my unexpected visitor, I called my best friend. I didn't care that she was in Jackson. I would drive cross-country if it would get me out of my own head.

Tara had some time off, so when I called, she took it to meet me. While she was dying to know every detail about "my whirlwind romance," and subsequent lifestyle change, she simply didn't ask. Something must have told her I wouldn't be able to discuss it and that something was right. Instead we did normal things. We had fun dressing me up so I was unrecognizable, and then we went to the mall and the nail salon. We even caught a matinee!

By dinner time, I was starved. We crawled into a local bar and grille on Route 90. It hadn't been on my "Approved List of Vendors" but it was along the way. I also didn't care. We walked in and there he was - all six and one-half feet of him. He was muscular and built like a wrestler. His skin was a deep, rich olive tone. There was light scarring on his arm I could see from my vantage point, and instead of repulsing me, it drew me in. Between fairies and vampires, I was sick of perfection. I wanted to know what managed to wound him, and the stories behind his. Scars weren't unsightly to me. They marked someone as a survivor.

I stole glimpses at him while I had dinner with Tara, but they were harmless. Nothing would ever come of it. I was just admiring his exotic looks and quiet confidence. That was what I told myself as I returned to the restaurant alone a week later. Tara had gone back to Jackson. Having her for that one day made the loneliness so much more abysmal.

The shades I wore were dark and my hair obscured most of my face just as precaution. I was in jeans and a t-shirt. No one looked at me twice, but Quinn had. He smiled at me and I looked down modestly, but dipped into his mind. He wasn't human but a Were of some kind. The fuzziness that clouded his thoughts was like Sam's, but thicker. Lingering too long there made my face hurt.

I sighed, feeling a twinge of disappointment. Of course he wasn't human. No one human was attracted to me and when they were, it was of the "burn the witch" variety. Having had it up to my eyebrows in supernatural creatures, I looked elsewhere. Yet I couldn't succeed entirely. He was a huge man and too hard to ignore. He had a certain air about him. It wasn't arrogance like Eric or the superciliousness of my supposed fairy kin. He simply commanded the room in a silent way in just his jeans and t-shirt.

My waitress came back with a glass of sparkling water I hadn't ordered. "It's from the man at the bar," she said, without setting it down. "You want I should send it back?" she asked, thinking of her missed period.

I looked to the bar to find that he was gone. It was a pity that I couldn't steal another glance to save for my hunks archives. Accepting the drink was harmless. He wouldn't know either way. so what could it hurt? "No," I said, setting my iced tea aside. "I'll take it, thank you."

The drink was set down, and to my surprise, I found writing on the side of the napkin. It was nothing much, just a drawing of a smiley face with a thought bubble that read, "Smile" and I did. It was such a little thing and it made me feel like a woman, not a vampire concubine or a spectacle.

That little inconsequential note was what brought me back to the same place just a few days later. I hadn't been sorry. He was there, and this time he wasn't at the bar. He was at the table beside the one in the corner I'd been occupying. My heart raced because I wanted to take my normal space in the corner. Shame and fear prevented me from moving away from the door. Then I wondered…what was I ashamed of?

Eric wasn't really my husband, not in the way that mattered and certainly not in the eyes of human law. I might be afraid, but I wasn't doing anything wrong. Nothing in the marriage contract I'd signed prevented that. I was stretching the bounds of the agreement, but I wasn't breaking it. I was just going to take my usual seat in a bar and grille I favored.

I sat with my back to him. There was nothing but air separating us. He was magnetic. The closer I got, the stronger the pull became. I sat and ordered a burger basket I had no intention of eating. In the pit of my stomach I was kind of awaiting the lines I'd grown to dread, "You look familiar," or "Hey! Aren't you that vampire's wife?"

None of it came. For all the roughness of his appearance, he had soft, kind eyes, from the shape to the color. He spun around in his chair, and I was arrested by pansy-purple eyes fringed under thick dark lashes. They made me smile.

"See you're taking my advice," he said, with a smile of his own. "It looks great on you."

I shook my head. "Not really," I said with a shrug. "It's your eyes. They're…pretty," I concluded.

He made a face as if he'd been mortally wounded. It dulled the untamed beauty to his face. It softened his features. It was the kind of smile you might find on a mischievous teenage boy but it didn't look out of place on his face. "That hurts, babe, and I want you to know I'm going to go home and cry about it."

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "You'll survive."

"I'm Quinn," he said holding out his hand.

"Sookie," I said shaking his hand.

We didn't really talk much. It was nice to have company who didn't poke or pry and I didn't have to shield against. When we talked, it was about the baseball game playing on the fuzzy screen. Having played softball I could watch a baseball game all day long. All the next week as I had to walk alongside Eric at his high roller parties, my mind was on Quinn. I knew I was on a slippery slope but it didn't keep me from going back to the meeting place the next chance I got. Quinn wasn't there. Disappointment didn't get a chance to settle in when the same waitress brought me a bottle of water and his note.

'Lil sis needed me. Next week?' and underneath that he'd written an address.

It was an intoxicating feeling, something I hadn't experienced in my life. Seeing that little explanation made me feel important in a meaningful way, like the object of a man's affection, like I mattered. It was for that reason I discarded the note and left with a promise that I wasn't coming back. No good would ever come of pursuing my budding friendship with John Quinn. I would be a fool to try. Most importantly, I wouldn't be the only one who would suffer the consequences. I walked away that afternoon with a bittersweet memory of a man and fantasies of what might have been.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: Read carefully, this chapter ends on a cliffie. It's pretty bad. Some might want to consider putting off this chapter until the next update...****You have been warned. **

* * *

**Sookie**

**Chapter Nineteen**

I've never understood how people who have affairs claim it was not something they planned. You plan your rendezvous. You tell the lies and you cover your bases. It is all premeditated. Calling anything other than a drunken, one night stand a mistake was crap and a poor excuse. Well, this is what I believed until it happened to me.

I could blame Eric. Lately he seemed to want to get rid of me the second I came around. I could say he was cold and uncaring. That much was true. I could say I was lonely which was also true, but it all sounded too convenient. The truth was it just happened. I never planned on having an affair.

I couldn't understand why it all seemed worth it. Perhaps it was because seeing Quinn again felt right? The next time I saw him, it was a compulsion that drove me to the address I'd memorized from his note. It was a little hole-in-the-wall gym. There were no cars in the lot and not needing to take the guards allowed me to blend in. No one looked at me twice. It added to the drive to see him. He made me feel normal.

I heard his unique mental signature and I went in using a back entrance. He must have sniffed me out because no one else in this sweaty gym paid me any mind, but the second I entered, his head turned and those pansy-purple eyes were on me. I smiled. He was happy to see me.

"What are you doing here?" he asked coming over. He was shirtless, a bit sweaty, and I was woman enough to be effected. The heat and scent coming off of him was intoxicating.

"You invited me," I said, trying to smother my conscience and bolster my confidence.

"That was before I knew you were married."

I stilled and looked at him in shock. "I know," he said with a nod. "I don't care because I can't stop thinking about you." He ran one of his hands over his face as he was struggling. "I want to know why you're here."

Having nothing else to say I told him the truth, "I couldn't stop thinking about you either."

He closed the space between us. He cupped my face, and then he claimed my lips in a kiss I felt all the way down to my toes.

"Come here," he whispered without fully breaking contact with my skin. His breath falling on my neck sent shivers up my spine. I followed him as he led the way to a back office.

I looked around and found the office space utilitarian. He saw my open assessment and a contrite expression fell over his face.

"I know it's not what…"

I threw my fingers over his lips, knowing exactly what he was going to say. There was a little television that was placed on an actual stand. It wasn't mounted into a wall or hidden behind a sliding cabinet. The couch was large, though it looked worn but cozy. It wasn't much and that made it perfect.

"Does the door lock?" I asked.

In response he kissed me. I could tell myself that I didn't plan on having sex. It would have been a lie. I'd waited a long time to know a man's touch. It felt good to be able to act on instant attraction and chemistry. It was something for which I'd yearned and never thought I would experience. Quinn was A LOT of man. It wasn't just the thick cords of muscle lining his body that made me want him more, it was the thought I was woman enough for that to have an effect. It was in the hunger in his eyes.

I laid back and he kissed my body all over. His tongue teased the hardened buds of my nipples; making me shiver and making my body grow moist. On instinct, I reached for his pulsing, thick erection and stroked him until I felt the wetness on the bulbous head of his cock. His fingers slipped between us and I moaned when they entered me.

I was lost in the joy of feeling something that was positive and good and just mine, at least for the moment. No matter how elated I was at this moment, my body wasn't used to the act. He pushed his manhood into me while I dug my nails into him and whimpered. It hurt like the blazes, and he wasn't even in me all the way.

"Babe, you okay?" he asked, idling.

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him I'd never done this before but I didn't. I couldn't. I just nodded. "Don't stop." And he didn't.

I quickly realized it didn't have much to do with me being a virgin. He was just rough. I didn't mind. I just wanted to feel something. I liked that he couldn't tamp his urgency and excitement. Being a Were, his body temperature was warmer. I let that pull me away from the pain until pleasure rose. Feeling wrapped in the heat of him automatically drummed up feelings of safety and security.

A part of me knew I was projecting those feelings onto someone that was yet to evoke them, but the majority of me didn't care. His near-feverish body temperature was such a change from what I'd been forced to endure that I embraced it wholly. He bit and gripped my hips and thighs with enough force to bruise, so it helped me feel something. His mind morphed and grew into more animal than man, and even that was fine. I wouldn't judge him for being out of control. I knew the feeling.

The pain was brief…then it just felt good, so good. It felt so good I began moving with him knowing it would only get better if I did. I was right, it got better. Ooohhh…so much better. I didn't orgasm, but I still had a LOT of fun. The intimacy and pleasure was more than I had ever known. He moved harder and faster for a minute, and then he grunted his release.

That day, I willfully violated all the things I had believed about marriage. I gave my body to a man who was not my husband. It was a comfort to me that our marriage wasn't real—not even in the eyes of the law. The only people who considered me the wife of a vampire were vampires and my great grandfather. It wasn't real. It never was. Afterward, I lay in his arms and we talked about childhood things. He and his half-sister were raised by their schizophrenic mother, which meant he had to take care of all three of them.

I related and connected to him. Gran was sick for a long time. It was a result of working hard all her life, grief, and old age. I took care of her with no resentment because it was what I'd learned from her about love and family. We'd talked about things like having to wear non-brand name shoes and earning toys one chore at a time. We laughed a lot and the little back office transformed into a piece of heaven.

After our first encounter, I left the gym, checked into a hotel using cash and showered. I was so afraid Eric would find out. I threw up, contemplating all the possibilities and consequences of what I'd done. A month passed while he continued ignoring me and giving me time away. I took it and in return, I argued with him less. I didn't get a thrill out of it as I knew some cheating spouses did. To me, it was just awful. I was afraid, but not enough to keep from chasing the feelings of validation and importance I got when I was with Quinn. It gave me new found courage.

My affair continued and after each time I told myself I wasn't going back but I always did. I'd agreed to the monogamy clause, and I was violating it every time I saw my lover. The penalty for infidelity wasn't stated in the wedding documents and that told me how bad it was. Everything else had an obnoxious price tag attached to it but that one. It was dangerous for us and Jason, but for the first time I didn't care about anything. I told myself as long as we were careful, there would be no consequences. What I'd never fathomed was falling in love. I had no idea how to fix it. The best case scenario was to wait for the marriage to end and then move on with my life with Quinn. But I didn't want to wait. Eric had an infinite life, all I had was this one. I didn't want to waste any more of it.

Being with Quinn when other things were impossible made everything else bearable. I no longer put up a fight against the jet setting parties where I was nothing but the world's most famous fangbanger. Having a room full of empty faces stare at me was nothing. In my heart, there was the truth that I would be with Quinn soon after all the cameras and false smiles. Eric never noticed.

Four months later, I was trying to pull myself away from the warmth of the man I loved. It got more and more difficult each time we parted. The simple greeting I once thought would turn into nothing was now the most important thing in my life. Yet, because of our circumstances, I was forced to treat it like trash.

Quinn kissed me goodbye. His warm arms wrapped around me pulled me from his side to lie against his body. I could feel the hardness of his erection and tried to pull away, but he held me fast. "I want all of you," he growled, kissing me deeply. I wanted him again, but time wasn't on my side. There were only three hours until dark. I had to shower and wash all traces of him from me before I went anywhere near the car or house.

"I want you too," I said for what had to be the millionth time. I've said good bye to him three times already. "I really have to go."

His body tensed, and he let me go so abruptly that I fell and bounced off his sofa bed. "I'm just a side thing to you," he said, his eyes downcast. He was staring at his fingers as if they held the answers to our problems. "That's all I'll ever be. You won't ever be with just me."

"It's not like that," I whispered, "You know it isn't."

"How could we ever have a life like this?" he cried, waving his arm around the back of his gym office.

This back and forth was something that was getting to be very common. I can't count how many times I've told him I would hole up in here with him forever if I could. The huge mansion I was trapped in had nothing on this small space. I lived for the time we spent together. The fact that I couldn't get him to see it greatly disturbed me.

Telling him about the terms of my marriage was on the tip of my tongue. But the less he knew about all of it, the safer he would be, but this always came up when I got ready to leave. Each time he became angrier than the last. I understood it, but from where I stood, there was no solution to our problem.

"You say it's complicated and you can't leave him, but I think you don't want to," he continued. "Not really."

I reached for him but he pulled away. I could see the hurt on his face. "No," I said, swallowing my tears. "That's not true."

He folded his arms across his chest and tried to school his features, but he was no good at lying. It was one of the things I loved about him. He felt what he felt when he felt it, and he didn't apologize for it.

"He has money, can hole you up in a big house, buy you nice things, and I can't."

Ouch. "If that's what you think of me, then what are you doing here?" I retorted, infuriated by the degrading assumption.

I knew he was a man who had his pride, but that last blow was a new one, and it hurt. It exhausted my patience with him while it struck me to my core. I had to live the lie in the spotlight. I had to hold Eric's hand and pretend while I was thinking of Quinn. He wasn't the only one who had to deal with this, and I was sick of him acting like it.

He didn't say anything as I moved to get out off of his sofa. Catching my wrist, he pulled me back against his chest. I willingly returned into his embrace because I didn't want to part ways angry. I didn't know the next time I would be back.

"Don't be mad at me, babe," he murmured into my hair. He sounded so anguished that all desire to remain angry faded. "Please don't be mad," he crushed me to him as if I was the only thing that held him tethered to this world. "I'm sorry. I hate that you can't come home with me and I can't spend the night with you." He confessed, "The thought of you going home to him, the thought of him touching you makes me crazy."

"He doesn't," I replied cupping his face in my hands. "We don't touch other than what's seen in the papers."

"I love you," he said, "... but he owns you! How do you think that makes me feel?"

"I get it. I don't know what to do about it," I said miserably. "I understand how you feel."

He was going to propose an ultimatum and I already knew which way I would have to go. The thought of it made me sick. It felt like the little bit of happiness I'd carved out in having him in my life, at least in some capacity, was going up in smoke. There wasn't a single thing I could say to prevent it. He was right. This, what we were doing, couldn't go on forever. It began as a way to explore attraction with someone whose mind I couldn't read. Now it was this big ugly mess under which was the love we shared.

"No, you don't," he yelled, pulling away so abruptly I almost fell.

Before I'd caught my balance, he was on his feet, the picture of aggression and frustration. This was one of those rare moments where I got a look into his head. All I saw was him driving a stake through Eric's heart. Fear tingled down my spine because in the small space he seemed even larger than life. I wasn't afraid for myself. I wasn't even afraid for Eric. The army of Britlingens and vampires would kill Quinn before he got close enough to scuff my husband's shoes.

"Listen, I get it. But that would be so very bad," I said. "Okay, sweetheart, I need you to promise not to go anywhere near him."

"Stop telling me you understand because you don't," he said in growling tone that told me he was more tiger than man. "I look at the magazines, and the fucking television, and I get so mad all I can think about is staking the bastard!" He raked an angry hand slowly over his face. After a few deep breaths he continued, "I live for the days when we're together but those days in between are hell."

His fists clenched and unclenched several times to show he was still struggling with his temper, a temper I knew he had but had never been on the receiving end of. Then again, this was an impossible situation. It would drive anyone to this. Quinn stared at me. I was looking into icy eyes and a stony, resolute face.

"I can't do this anymore," he said, stepping away from me as if I were the deadliest of poisons, as if he didn't know me. It hurt like hell. "I thought I could but…I just can't."

I wanted to tell him I loved him and I was sorry I hurt him. I wanted to hug him and kiss him, but that would only make this harder. I got dressed, walked out, and he made no move to stop me.

I did a quick run at the spa. I had to expunge all traces of the man I loved from my body. As was the routine, I got their most fragrant body wrap, and afterward I tanned. Once I got home, I showered. It was all so exhausting. I felt drained emotionally, and I couldn't stop the tears from falling. I stood under the heavy spray trying to keep from falling apart. I'd lost Quinn and it was my fault. He was right. We couldn't continue the way we had been. It was only a matter of time. I was the human wife of the world's most famous vampire. If Eric didn't find out on his own then someone else would.

When I left my bathroom, Eric was seated at the very edge of my bed with his legs crossed at the ankle. He was supposed to be out of town. He and Bobby were supposed to be in New York for the rest of the week on business with a vampire named Alexander that always toted an infant girl in his arms. I'd read all of that Bobby's thoughts.

For a moment my breath caught, and I was sure I resembled a deer in head lights. If I could hear my heartbeat thumping between my ears, I knew he heard it. My palms felt clammy. Bright flashing red lights went off in my head.

"You scared me," I breathed, trying to account for my extreme physiological reaction.

He nodded his head in my direction. It was a show of acknowledgment, but not apology. All I could do was stare because panic had speared me in place, but he said nothing. He was looking curiously around my room. He had a glass of what could only be blood in his hand.

"What are you doing here?" I finally asked.

"I live here, if I'm not mistaken," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "I grew curious when there were no heartbeats to hear in the house. I came to your room to make sure you hadn't robbed yourself as to fund the emancipation of the humans again," he concluded, taking another gulp of his beverage.

Very funny, I thought morosely. "You were gone and I was at the spa," I said.

The excuse I'd concocted so long ago came flowing from my lips even though he hadn't asked. It gave me a chance to hear how lame it sounded. Shit. It took everything I had to keep my voice steady. I fought a blush and the prickle of sweat on the back of my neck. I hadn't told a lie, but I wasn't being honest.

He nodded, but thankfully he gave no further argument on the matter. He rose to his full height. "Come."

For some reason I couldn't explain, I wanted to take a step back. It wasn't that I'd forgotten how tall he was. I hadn't. In my state of mind, I found every inch of his six foot five intimidating. Before I could blink, he was in my personal space. His blood sloshed slightly only after he stopped moving. It was a testament to how fast he was.

"If I haven't killed you by now, I'm not going to," he said, holding his hand out to me. "I have something I want you to see. That is all."

The thing about telling lies was that you had to keep track of them. I wasn't an accomplished liar and I didn't want to have to start with him if he began asking more questions. I placed my hand in his because the fastest way to get out of this would be to do what he wanted.

We walked in silence down the hall and out the front door. The silence was even more eerie because while I could hear my footsteps I barely heard his. Outside Eric took a seat on one of the perfect patio chairs that allowed for an unsecured view of the willow-lined driveway.

"I enjoy this view," he said.

I guess this was something he thought worth showing me. So I looked out into the night and it really was beautiful. The moon was almost full, and it reflected off the still pond in the distance. Eric even fit perfectly into the background. His skin glowed and his hair looked silver.

When I thought I'd looked long enough to appease him, I told him the truth, "It's better in the day."

"How was the gym?" he asked.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: **To** Femme Feminista, **I so watch Inuyasha, I love Lord Sesshoumaru. I even call my bf Miroku sometimes because he's such a lecher! ROTFL! God I love this site it's chuck full of awesome people. To name a few, My awesome Beta's and proofreading champs, Rebecca. t. p. wrecker and Ms. buffi.

**To ****Ericsfae, B-Rock525, ljhjelm49, Baronessajai, Duckbutt, Vlady, rcherry1977, treewitch703, murgatroid-98, Loftin **and** sluggy's mom; **I wanted to give you all a great big bow. Your names have been the most present on my review pages through all my stories, showing love and support since the beginning. Thanks!

* * *

**Sookie**

**Chapter Twenty**

I was caught. There was no lie I could tell that could get me out of this. So I relied on the truth. "You know I don't love you," I said. I wouldn't apologize because I wasn't sorry. We both knew it.

Eric didn't even look as if he heard the deepest truths I'd told. "This isn't about love," he replied, coolly looking down at his phone. "You violated the terms of our agreement. That cannot go without consequence."

"I never wanted this," I yelled, frustrated. "Let me go, Eric, please let me go."

"No," he said, "You are my wife. Your place is with me."

Those words that shouldn't have affected me made me want to cry. He didn't want me. He wanted someone whose compliance he could force. It shamed me to cry in front of him. It seemed like the cheapest surrender after a well fought war. I hated myself, but I was unable to keep my tears unshed.

"You will never be my husband," I said, trembling with anger and despair. "Not in the way that matters, not ever."

"You have never tried," he replied calmly, "I have been indulgent, patient, and lenient, and you, you with your faithlessness, you have reminded me that pain is a teacher that is second to none."

Instinctively, I took a step back. He was going to kill me or hurt me, but I was okay with that. The only thing left to do was shield Quinn if I could. Nothing Eric could do would make me give him up.

"I have told you. If I haven't killed you by now, I'm not going to," he reminded, sounding ever bored.

We both looked toward the driveway as several vehicles drove up. They were cars, but not the ones Eric used. They filed in one after the other and formed a loose circle on the front lawn. This couldn't be happening! Hoping I wouldn't get his unique mental signature, I fanned out my mental net. There were three cars, seven vampires and…a choked sob escaped. Quinn… He had found Quinn.

"I am man enough to never raise my hand to my wife in anger. Being a vampire I have a craving for violence. It can only be satisfied with the blood of your lover."

I'd been afraid before. I'd been terrified of René trying to rape and kill me. This, what I felt, left me feeling physically sick. I stood shaking with my heart in my stomach. "I'm the one who cheated," I said. "He didn't know. It's my fault. I'm the one you should punish."

"Believe me when I say that I fully intend to," Eric said, reclaiming his seat.

All the cars had left their head lights on. I could see Quinn and I crumpled to the ground in a heap. There was a collar around his neck; it looked like something out of a house of horrors. The thick band had long serrated knives facing inward. It prevented him from shifting. The knives would kill him instantly.

'No, please God don't let this be real', I sent the prayer up, but it was tossed right back in my face.

"Please, don't do this!" I begged. "I'm sorry."

"As am I, for I take no pleasure from your pain," His tone was just as calm as it had been since the beginning of the conversation. "Now, sit down." And like a marionette on strings too taut, I did. My movements were jerky and uncoordinated. I moved blindly with my eyes on Quinn as I stumbled into the nearest chair.

Two vampires emerged with thick long lengths of chains in their hands. I watched, horrified, as they tied them to Quinn's hands, then to the bumper of two opposite cars. Another vampire, a tiny female stood behind Quinn with a barbed whip in her hand and a lit cigarette between her lips. I burst into tears. I knew what was coming.

"He will die." My husband said. "The swiftness of his death, however, I place in your hands."

This just couldn't be happening. Bile rose and I fought to remain conscious. I was trying to catch Quinn's eyes, but his gaze was focused to the right of me where Eric sat. It was like being trapped in a dream so horrible, I honestly felt like I would never wake up. I didn't see the vampire behind Quinn move. I heard the first "thwack" of the whip making contact with flesh. I flinched, and turned to Eric to beg for mercy.

"If you turn your head, if you so much as bat an eyelash, I will have him healed and we will start all over again."

Time stood still. The mundane sounds of the night around us were drowned out by Quinn screaming, my sobbing, and the vicious lashes of the whip hitting already bloody, tattered flesh. All throughout I was begging and apologizing, but Eric didn't show any signs of hearing. I was in hell and he was the devil.

More than once Quinn was beaten unconscious, but the chains simply kept him tethered where he was. Someone injected him with something, and he would be dragged screaming into a world of hurt. Eric forced me to watch all of this. With every fall of that barbed whip, a part of my soul disappeared as well.

For the first time I understood what it was to really truly hate. The emotion was as toxic and putrid as I'd sensed from the minds of others. I wanted them to experience this hell that I'd been force fed, this torture that they'd been so eager to join as participants. Hate planted a seed in my gut and in that moment, I promised Quinn one thing. I would send Eric to his final death with my own hands.

Quinn was unconscious again. He couldn't take much more. They were going to push him over. He would change and die, or they would kill him. All I could do was keep begging for mercy that I knew would never come. Having nothing else, that was what I did.

"Please Eric," I sobbed. "Please make them stop!"

"You say you are sorry, so then let us test the truth of your words. Absolution for your infidelity can only be attained with his death," my husband said blandly.

"Make them stop!" I said, reaching over and taking hold his hands.

"For the sake of your lover, do keep your eyes forward," his tone didn't change as he began prying my fingers from his cuff linked sleeves, one digit at a time. True to his word, he wasn't forceful. He wouldn't hurt me physically, but he thought nothing of ripping away the heart of me.

Quinn couldn't take much more. Already I saw his hands showing a partial transformation. I fell at my husband's feet. My pride and dignity were nothing. On my knees with my head bowed, I did the only thing left to do. Begging wasn't reaching Eric. Bargaining might.

I heard the low humming whine as Quinn was brought back around. I knew the flogging and the screaming would soon commence. I didn't have to focus on not crying as I continued to implore Eric; I had no tears left.

"I'll do anything you want," I said staring at his designer dress shoes. "I'll never go near him again. I won't talk back or leave the house." I'd reached the point where I would say anything. "I'll share your bed. I'll do anything, anything, just please,…please make them stop…"

"You are my wife," he replied. "So that offer insults me more than you can ever comprehend in one lifetime."

I held on tighter as he began to move away. I wasn't going to let go. He was going to have to break my fingers or listen. "No, please," I looked up at him then so he could see the truth of my words. "I can give you a day walker!"

That finally succeeded in getting a reaction from him. It wasn't exactly the pity that I'd been begging for but he paused. He arched a single brow, other than that his face gave nothing away. I had hope. It was like coming up for air after being submerged underwater.

"Make them stop," I said. "Don't hurt him anymore and I'll give you a day walker."

He waved a hand, and I felt the scene behind me go still. "Thalia, heal him," he said to one of his faceless monsters. "Up the dose of adrenaline. I don't have all night to watch this pussy cat die."

The noise of utter desolation escaped before I had a chance to stuff it back. I'd thought I knew how bad Quinn was suffering because I was witnessing it, but it had been so much worse.

"You have from now until he is healed to make me believe your words," my husband said looking down at me pitilessly.

I swallowed my hate. Expressing it wouldn't save Quinn, and right now that mattered more than anything else. "Fae don't just count blood. They mark their own by the presence of the spark and the number of abilities," I said, recalling the conversation I had with Dermot so long ago. A part of me wanted to edit my words so he wouldn't suffer for this, but the words were coming too fast for me to control.

"And you have two?" he ventured. I knew he was trying to catch me in a lie. I didn't dare.

I shook my head. "Five," I said. "Telepathy, shielding, cloaking, sight beyond sight, and I'm a giver."

If that was a shock to him he didn't show it. "The shielding is what helps you control the telepathy?" he asked casually.

"Yes, and it's what makes me immune to glamour and all other mind tricks." I replied.

"Explain the rest," he said.

"The cloaking hides everything else I am, even from the Sky Prince. If he knew I was this gifted he would have never given me to you."

Eric didn't even look the least bit convinced. His eyes were honed in over my right shoulder as if I hadn't spoken. He didn't seem to be listening to what I was saying, not really. I knew I was running out of time.

"There are approximately seventy-two seconds remaining," he said, when his eyes returned to mine. "What is sight beyond sight?"

"I don't know," I told him honestly. "It just supposed to let you see but I don't really notice it because I'm already a telepath."

My husband fixed his pitiless eyes on me and I knew he didn't believe me. "I would tell you more if I knew," I implored. "I would but I don't know."

I waited for him to say something but he didn't, so I continued, "Fairies are not as fertile as they should be and their species is declining." I risked a quick glance over my shoulder at Quinn but I couldn't see him. "Some of their females are givers. It means they are always fertile and are able to give life at any time they choose. I have the trait. I can give you what no other woman in world can; I can give you a child."

"You lie," he said, showing something that was mildly akin to anger—but he only managed to make it appear more disbelieving than anything else. I ignored it. He was showing some emotion, but it was something I so rarely saw. In the straits I was in it was a good sign. It had to be because I had nothing else.

"I'm not lying to you," I said. "I'm not old enough yet but in two years I will be. I'm telling the truth."

A part of me had felt like he had given me this chance so I could fail, and Quinn could suffer all over again. This might have just been him dangling hope in front of me to further my torment. It would have served its purpose well. This small bit of hope I'd banked everything on made the hell that waited even more unforgiving.

"I swear…" I begged. I was ready to swear on a stack of bibles and my mother's grave, but he wouldn't believe me. "I swear on Quinn's life. I'm not lying to you."

Tears still blurred my vision and my eyes were swollen, but I kept my eyes on Eric's as best as I could. I saw as he deliberated a moment longer and I prayed to any and every God I thought would listen. I needed him to want this because I had nothing left.

"A life for a life," he said, extending his hand out to me.

With trembling fingers and only half of my heart, I placed my hands in his. He helped me to my feet and led me back into the house. I looked out across the lawn one last time. The chains being used to hold Quinn were removed and more blood was forced into him. It was probably the last time I was ever going to see him.

I would never get to tell Quinn how sorry I was or how much I loved him. It was a macabre picture painted in so much blood, pain, and sorrow; I thought I would never wash the traces from me. I felt like I would never be free of this sin, this crime that had damned the man I loved.

No matter what I'd fooled myself into thinking, we weren't going to get a happily ever after. Life—my life, had truly begun with John Quinn; he had woken me up and made me feel. Deep down, the core of the woman I was knew I would never be whole without him. The best I could hope for was a meager half-life. For his sake, I embraced my fate without a single tear. I was all cried out. I was numb. It was a relief. Numbness was good. It was what was best for all that I had just signed up for.

Everyone else was willing to sacrifice me for their gain without hesitation or regard. I was done with all of it. No matter what I had to do, no matter what I had to give, I was going to end Eric with my own hands. Between him and Niall, they had taken one thing too many. It wasn't just about revenge for what Quinn had suffered. It was about me being free.

Eric escorted me back to my room. I'd expected him to force me to his bed, for him to claim what he had bargained for but he left. I waited and waited, but even with my sixth sense fanned out there were no minds to hear outside of the guards who surrounded my cage. It wasn't until well past sunrise, when I was sure Eric wouldn't come, that exhaustion finally set in. When I slept I had nightmares.

I picked up my phone a thousand times wanting to call Quinn to make sure he was all right, but I knew I could never risk it, not while Eric was still alive. Instead I focused my telepathy on sifting through the minds in the house. For the sake of my sanity, I'd always kept my shields up. Now I didn't.

I knew every mundane thought Abby had. I could count and locate all the guards in the house by their mental signature alone. I needed to know where Eric rested during the day. It wasn't something I'd ever paid attention to before, but before he rose for the night, I found out his resting place was somewhere in the Northeast wing of the house. It was a small victory. That didn't show as I presented myself at dinner as I was expected.

I'd never noticed it before, but Eric made more noise when I was around. He scrapped his chair legs across the floor. It was my cue to look up at him and I did, briefly. Then I looked down at my plate and that was where I kept my eyes. Abby came and went with his blood, but I didn't divert my attention.

The silence continued and I didn't break it. I ate my dinner, very conscious of Eric's eyes on me. A normal person might look up but I was playing docile. I wouldn't speak unless I was spoken to, and I wouldn't look at him unless he cued.

"Are we never to speak again?" he finally asked.

I looked up then to find him spinning his drink on the table. The movement was precise and the bottle didn't waver by a hair, but his eyes were on me. Unlike the first time I'd seen those piercing blue orbs in print, they left me cold. It was because I'd seen the tiniest glimpse into what they hid, barbarism, cruelty, and malice. It was impossible to fathom that everyone else bought it. Never in my life would I ever forget what he was capable of.

"I don't know what you want me to say," I replied honestly.

My fairy kin had taught me that much. All I had to do was tell half-truths. My interpretation differed from his, but it wouldn't matter. As long as he drew an implied interpretation he wouldn't think I was lying.

"Why him?" he asked looking at me calmly. "Of all the men in all the worlds, why did you choose him?"

"I don't know," I replied, and that was the truth. I hadn't chosen Quinn; it happened and once it had, I didn't want to let it go. "It wasn't something I'd planned."

The tension in the air descended like a wet blanket and I stilled, not sure what to do. I didn't know the right thing to say in this situation. Whatever the right thing was it couldn't be the truth! There was no way he wanted to hear the truth!

"That is not an answer," he replied coolly. "I want to know why you risked all that you did for the likes of him. Were you lonely, bored, or angry? What drove the action?"

"All of it," I said. "He didn't know who I was and we had things in common. It was easy to be myself, and that was something I hadn't had since I left home. I do wish I hadn't done what I did. I wished none of this had ever happened."

I looked down as pain clawed its blood-soaked path back into the front of my mind. I felt it knocking at the door but I shut it out. I wouldn't let it in until Eric was nothing but a staked memory.

"Mostly I felt like you wouldn't find out and if you did, you wouldn't really care as long as it wasn't made public," I concluded.

"Why would you think that when it was expressly forbidden in the documents?" he asked.

I thought back to Chicago and the night of the marriage. I'd been afraid of having sex, but he didn't want me. He didn't seem remotely attracted. I didn't want him to want me, but I also didn't want to feel utterly undesirable. He had come into the bedroom with the paperwork in hand. He had made me feel not at all up to snuff. That pattern continued every day of our marriage. It's hard to believe that I'd been tied to him for over a year now.

"You never looked at me like that," I didn't have to say, 'like he did.' It was assumed. If the slight narrowing of his eyes was any indication, he assumed correctly. I hurried to explain myself, "It was clear to me that you weren't attracted to me."

I was scared I might have told too much truth. I waited for anger. He didn't feel anything for anyone or anything.

"I will forgive you this indiscretion," he said, confirming my assumption. "I will forget it and so will you."

I nodded. "Thank you," I said meekly.

I might want to forget all this, but forgiveness was between him and his God. The only thing between us was revenge.

* * *

*****0o0o0o*****

I know that was hard but believe me when I say it will get better. There is a happily ever after, yes under all this pain and anger and betrayal. I promise, in the words of Acheron, "Sometimes things have to go wrong in order to go right."

*****0o0o0o*****

Last and definitely the bottom most least of all on the announcement board goes to the spineless guest that said, **"This story is disgusting!"** I want you to know that this early update was for you because I love them haters too (Someone has to because they're so full of hate they can't love themselves). Plus "Living well is the best revenge." Biatach, you can kicks rocks and suck salt!


	21. Chapter 21

**Bschoen515** You're safe and thank you for braving life and limb to let me know how my work is received. I don't want anyone to feel like I can't take constructive criticism, I can and I welcome it because I get better. I write to elicit emotions from readers so telling me you like this or hate about a story is quite alright too. What isn't alright is flagrant disrespect and bigotry.

* * *

**Eric**

**Chapter Twenty-One**

"I wish you would tell me why you're unhappy," Pam said, rubbing my face gently.

I smiled at her and leaned into her touch but said nothing. To think she had a string of lovers believing that she was a self-centered asshole. She was actually quite perceptive when she wanted to be. It just wasn't often.

"Maybe if you drink," she said offering her wrist.

I kissed the offered site, but placed her arm by her side. "If I'm not mistaken you told me marriage means being miserable half the time," I teased.

She scoffed, moved my papers off my lap, and rested her head there instead. She began talking about a redevelopment plan she had for an area not far from her office buildings in Montreal. I ran my fingers through her hair and let that comfort me as we flew into LaGuardia together. While she was happy to take half of my major bank under her holdings, she wasn't going to do the paperwork associated with it. I needed her to sign off on some papers and that had to be done in person. This was part of the reason I'd been with her more over the past week. The other was to avoid my wife or what was left of her.

Learning of Sookie's infidelity was a testament to the disease of the human condition that some vampires occasionally suffered. I told myself what I felt was transference and displacement. I'd simply substituted her personality for a lack of excitement. I'd taken a desire for something non- monotonous and transferred it onto the first semi-interesting thing I saw. This just so happened to be my wife.

If only I'd had some damn perspective, I would know that stubborn irrational women weren't so rare. I told myself this. I told myself I didn't care. Even as the thought formed I didn't really believe it; but for some reason, I'd put doing something that sordid as beneath her. It didn't occur to me how ridiculous such a thought was until my idealization of her character had been ripped away. I was a fool.

I'd punished Sookie for her for the slight, severely. Since then I'd been living with a ghost of the woman who had awakened my passions. I'd turned her into something I did not recognize. She lived in terror of me. She said nothing other than what she thought I wanted to hear. True to her words, she didn't talk back or leave the house. Acting out was a thing of the past. She didn't cry anymore either. She didn't do anything.

No matter her trespasses against me, it had never been my aim to break her, yet this was how she looked. She looked empty, void, and so very shattered. Batanya had been the one to open the envelope that contained proof of her infidelity. She had cleared the mansion, faced me, and braced for the day we had both feared.

My bodyguard felt nothing; her neck didn't sting. It wasn't anger that fueled what I had done to Sookie's lover. It had been pain. She'd dealt me a blow I would have never thought could come from the heart alone. I just wanted her to want me even if only a little. I wanted her to want me. I loved her, I thought I did. It was an obsessed and broken kind of infatuation but it was all a creature like me was capable of. My adoration of her had fueled everything I'd been doing for months. We had fought less and I thought that she was getting used to me as her husband. I'd placed my nebulous hopes on that being the start of something different and it had blown up in my face.

My pain had been her only objective from be the beginning. She'd betrayed my trust. She lied. She had violated the terms of our union. What was worse? I'd denied myself the solace that the tiger's death would have brought. I did it for a woman who didn't love me, want me, or even like me. Learning of her affair had hurt but continuing to watch her suffer was unbearable.

Every lash her lover suffered she bore the scars in her heart while his had been washed away. I had no intention of forcing her into giving me her body or gaining a child but this was a compromise that allowed me to save face and end her pain. That was all I wanted. I wanted it more than I wanted Quinn dead. I wanted it more than I wanted her to want me.

John Quinn had once owned E(E)E it was a company that in the past coordinated occasions of every sort. His specialty was supernatural events but I used him because of the security concerns Batanya often had. He did satisfactory work but it was his sister that was the problem. He knew this and still brought her along to a banquet my bank hosted three years ago.

All she did that evening was steal. Me and all my subsidiaries dropped him as a vendor. The hotel pressed charges against her. He appealed to me. I refused. He bankrupted his business trying to buy her a lawyer. She went to jail and he blamed me. That was who my wife was willing to do anything to save. Again I wanted to spear her pain more than I wanted anything else.

I sighed internally. Maybe I should have told Sookie instead of doing what I had done. She would hate him and not me. Maybe then she would have let me kill him. Now, she would never believe me after what I'd done to him and she would hate me all the more for the presumed lie. No, she could never know not now or ever. I never wanted to be the one to deal her that blow. Death would have been more merciful than that.

Telling my wife about any of this would have hurt her more than anything else I could have done. She loved that mongrel. I knew that, I saw it. He had sent me more than a few pictures. There was video too. He didn't spare me an ounce of dignity or her any honor. Every time they had been together, even the first time, her first time he had recorded to humiliate me with. Just the thought of it…I calmed myself as Batanya winced in her seat. She didn't bother rubbing at her neck. The pain was a constant these days. I was always angry.

It wasn't easy to hold onto my anger. It was my fault. I'd convinced her I didn't want her and she wasn't wrong, at least not entirely. Asking for her fidelity on paper had just been a strategy. When the documents had been drawn I cared nothing about her. Now things had changed and grown beyond my control. I didn't want to care. If I could help it, I wouldn't care whom she gave her body and her heart to.

"Leta," Pam called, pulling me from my thoughts. My child was grinning ear to ear with her hand pressed against the window. "Flying lessons,"

We were still at cruising altitude, but I knew she was going to jump off the plane. There was an anticipatory smile on her face that lit her eyes and accentuated her dimples. I looked as the clouds danced and formed dozens of puffy white ravens that morphed into a larger one. It was something my sister only did for Pam. In the distance I saw her lingering in the air and waving at us.

"Forge my signature," Pam said. She was placing her phone and bags with her guards. They were used to her behavior and simply rolled their eyes and went back to what they were doing. It wouldn't be the first time she jumped out of a plane.

"You can't. Flying lesson won't change that," I reminded her gently. "The last time you decided to practice from an aircraft the FAA fined you seven digits."

She rolled her eyes, took the band from my hair, and pulled hers into a ponytail. "Tell Zee I'm still in love with his wife."

The pressure in the cabin of the plane was unstable for less than half a minute as Pam slid through a crack in the door and squeezed out of the craft. I saw her bounce through the clouds, fangs out and laughing her head off! No matter what else was eating away at me I smiled to see her so happy, even over something so insane.

With Pam AWOL I could cancel with Alexander because nothing could be finalized without my child'd signature. But I didn't. There was the meeting or returning home. I went with work. I landed at the airport in New York, Alexander met me, and we headed back to his apartment. The work we had to do would take a good part of the night and he preferred to work from home because of his daughter.

Andy was absent for most of the evening but when she came in search of her father she wasn't a distraction. Being at work with him often meant little Andy was well behaved. Unlike most toddlers she wasn't vying for his attention or loud. The hour was late and she was simply looking for somewhere safe and familiar to rest her head. Her father sat on the floor with his legs crossed and she tucked between them and slept. Absently his fingers combed through her hair or stroked her cheek. Most men would never care so deeply for the product of their mate's rape. It seemed he did so, not only with ease but with a devotion that was true of all real fathers.

"Came to see if you guys needed a drink." Rebecca said. She had two heated bloods in hand.

"Yes thank you," I said accepting the beverage.

Rebecca served Alexander his with a kiss and that brought my mind back to the one place that I didn't want it to go. Work had succeeded in taking my mind off Sookie. I watched Rebecca go with the child cradled in her arms and I found that I envied Alexander. I envied him the meaning his daughter brought to his life. I envied him the love his wife showed him.

"Do you ever think about killing her?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"Turn her, you mean?" he asked, looking a bit too calm.

I stayed quiet for a few seconds, trying to gather my thoughts. The thing I enjoyed most about Alexander's company was that he didn't flinch just because I moved too fast. He was unlike every other vampire, even Thalia and her gang. They worked for me because it was me, or nothing. No one would have them. It was different with Alexander. He knew the stories about me, but he didn't judge me by them. Acting like a confused madman would unsettle him, but I couldn't keep from wondering because I wanted with Sookie what he had with Rebecca and I hadn't any idea how to get it.

I figured honesty was the best way to proceed seeing I was already blurting it out. "No," I said. "I mean kill her, as in ‛not alive in any sense' anymore."

He rose from the floor to take a seat. "You mean like wrapping my hands around her neck, then squeezing and or shake the life from her," he supplied.

I nodded hesitantly. "Yes, exactly that."

I wondered how he knew, unless he had some experience in the matter. He couldn't. His relationship with his wife was nothing like the one I had with mine. Yet he understood this underlying, antagonistic feeling that came with my inexplicable and unexpected attraction to Sookie. I wondered if this was common. Nothing made sense anymore, and the emotions that one single soul elicited from me weren't healthy. I knew they weren't.

Alexander loved Rebecca and she loved him. It was clear the instant her name was spoken or she entered the room. It was the reason Pam constantly hit on Rebecca. His devotion was such that vampires simply avoided her for fear of him. Precisely it was from fear of anything befalling her while they were around. Alexander was not an enemy any wanted. In part it was because of his association with me but he was feared before that.

"Yes," he affirmed leaning back into his seat. "I did, and sometimes still do. Her ears are for decoration it seems, because she certainly doesn't listen. You know, she came to this crime-infested city because she wants to save the world. Despite all she's seen and suffered, she won't accept that it's already gone to hell."

"So you disagree on the matter," I gathered.

He chuckled and shook his head. "When you're married it's called fighting," he informed me.

So it wasn't just Sookie and me and that gave me some. "But you cannot compromise because it involves her safety."

"Neither does she. It's trying." I saw some genuine annoyance but he shrugged it away, "I hate that about her but it's also what I love most."

What he had described were the two extremes I was struggling with. I loved Sookie because I wanted everything with her that I never wanted with anyone else. For all the wealth I had, and the power it amassed, she was beyond my vast reach. It was a bad joke by the universe if I've seen one, the first woman I wanted in what felt like forever didn't want me. It hurt and that was what fueled the thoughts of violence. I was male. I had pride. It had been wounded and the vampire came to the surface wanting to do her harm because of it.

I couldn't talk to Pam because she would attack anything that made me unhappy. That was the last thing I needed. Illeta was too partial to peaceful solutions to understand. Alexander was as close to a friend as someone like me could have and he listened. I set my work aside, and for an hour I simply voiced the frustrations, aggression and pain my wife caused me. I told him about everything, her infidelity too. It wasn't the fact that she was with someone else though that was infuriating. I could get over that easily even though that someone was John Quinn. What rankled and hurt most was the fact that she lied and abused trust I'd given without prejudice.

"How much would it set you back if you killed her?" Alexander asked at the end of my venting.

"Three hundred and fifty seven million, five hundred and forty-one thousand, five hundred and fifty-six dollars and seventy-one cents." I'd been chanting that figure like a mantra every time she crossed me.

He shrugged. "You can afford it."

"I can," I admitted, but that wasn't what I wanted.

It had begun as a desire to make her obey me, but now I wanted her to like me and she didn't. She hated me for what I did to the tiger. I didn't know what would change that. I didn't even know how I got to this. I didn't understand any of it because for all the affection and tenderness she awakened in me, it was unintentional. She couldn't care less and I resented her for it, hence my wanting to kill her. Also, it wasn't that I wanted to kill her kill her; I wanted to wrap my hands around her opinionated, ungrateful, irritating, lovely neck, and silence those tempting lips while shaking some sense into her mouthwatering body. Even in my own head all of that sounded entirely too morbid.

"First visualize it" he said, and I tried.

In my head I pictured my wife with her lover. I saw her leaving me and running off with him. I imagined every infuriating argument we've ever had. I wrapped my hands wound her neck and it all stopped. I flinched and unclenched my fists to shake off the dread I felt.

"I can't," I confessed.

I hadn't been entirely sure when I told her if I hadn't killed her yet I wasn't going to. Now I knew for sure. She could make me angry enough that I wanted to, but thinking it through…was horrific to put it mildly. Doing it was impossible even if she made me feel like it. There was no more confusion in what I felt. Nothing would be as torturous as not having her with me.

"Congratulations," Alexander said with sympathetic shake of his head. "You, my friend, are in love with a human woman."

Damn.

* * *

*********On a mission to crack a thousand reviews...join the cause. Tell me your thoughts and feelings, what you love and hate and what you predict is to come. My forecast...****some citrus in the future...It certainly took me long enough. **


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: A lot of you raised a very good question, "Why would Eric still want Sookie?" The answer is simple, you can't help who you love. It doesn't change because they hurt you, it doesn't change even if they don't love you back. More than a few of us have lived it and being a big bad vampire doesn't make you the exception to the rule. I mean if you could just flip a switch then there wouldn't be so many songs about love and heartache.**

* * *

**Sookie**

**Chapter Twenty-One**

All week I watched Eric waiting to find a crimp in his routine. I might as well be waiting for the sands of time to run out. I was wracking my brain trying to come up with something. The cluviel dor! I'd all but forgotten about it. It could kill him for me! I wasn't sure if it would work and I needed to be. If nothing else, I knew I would only get one stab at him and it needed to be lethal.

I called Claudine's club but it wasn't her I was after.

"What?" asked came an annoyed huff.

I didn't thank God because I was conspiring to commit murder, but I thanked my lucky stars that for once I got what I was looking for. Claudine handled me with kiddie gloves. I knew she would help me as long as it went hand in hand with what Niall wanted. She was charged with minimizing Dermot's and my, 'Destructive ways' Hence why he was sentenced to Hooligans and she checked on me weekly.

"Hey, I was looking for you." I said to Dermot. He'd said we were alike and I hoped like hell it was true. I needed him to know what I was asking without having to really say it.

"For something fun and mischievous?" he asked hopefully. "If I see Claude's ass one more time I think I'll be sick."

"Well not really," I said. He gave a long agonized moan which I ignored. "I wanted to use that gift card you gave me but I don't know how." I continued after his theatrics.

"It's was a gift of the deepest love, it's supposed to give you what you ask; it's non-refundable, non-transferable, and good only for a one-time purchase."

"I could buy enough food to end world hunger if I wanted or even buy all the weapons in the world and create world peace?"

"No, it has to be spent on something dear to you because it was for you that it was bought. You can't buy world peace because you don't know everyone in the world; same can be said for world hunger."

"If I can't buy peace, what if I use it to pay for soldiers of peace? They could make evil people go away."

By the length of his pause, I knew he understood exactly what, if not whom, I was talking about.

"Let me tell you a story. Once there was a craftsman who owned a magic ax. The ax cut down trees in a single stroke, carved paths in mountains and sliced through stone to forge fortresses."

The tale and how it applied to me was easy enough to follow. The ax was the cluviel dor and I was the craftsman, not ideal but understandable.

When Dermot continued his brogue was tingeing his words, pulling me deeper into the tale. "He could have been rich but he only used the ax to provide for those dearest to his heart. When he died, he bestowed the ax upon his eldest son whom he so loved. The boy was ambitious. Why use this ax for trees and remain a simple craftsman when I can cut down an entire army and be king?' he wondered."

I was clutching the phone in one hand and the magical little stone in the other. I could feel the pulse of it in my anticipation. This could be it. I could be a single wish away from freeing Quinn and me from Eric. I could be a wish away from a happily ever after.

"What happened?" I asked breathlessly. "Did it work? Did he do it?"

"He tainted the spirit in which the ax was forged and under which it was given," he told me. "The ax cut his head off instead." Then he hung up.

I sat there with the dial tone ringing in my ear, and my hand running reflexively around my neck. I had nothing. I was right back where I started. God, it was like I would never be free of him. The army of daemons kept him safe during the day. He was a lethal predator at night. I had a magical wish-granting item but I couldn't use it to kill.

Frustrated, I tossed the stone across the room and collapsed on my bed. I was trapped. I felt like crying. I felt like screaming. I wanted to run away but there was no place in this world of another other that would keep me from Eric's reach. Forcing my tears back I rose from the bed. I wouldn't give up.

There had to be some other way and I would find it. I just had to think. Then it came to me. Sex and seduction, I could use them as weapons. I would do anything to get close enough to end him. The made me nauseous but I pacified my remaining moral fibers with the fact that it was going to happen anyway.

Eric was my husband, and at some point he was expecting sex, even before I'd agreed to share his bed or promised him a child. This way it would be on my terms and I would have the control. I started that night. Since he was insisting that we dine together. Lately he even tried to talk and ask me about my day. As if his spies didn't tell him everything I did. Still I played his game but I added my own twist.

I stuck to physical cues through out that week. I wore tighter jeans and tops, shorter skirts and dresses. I wore my hair away from my neck because I'd heard vampires like that sort of thing. I even went braless once or twice when the top garment called for it. Seducing a thousand-year-old vampire was as big a task as killing him because so far he was missing every hint. Seduction was out. Eric wasn't the least bit into me. I would probably have an easier time seducing the wall.

"Mr. Northman can't join you for dinner," Abigail said to me the the following Wednesday.

"Thanks," I replied.

That was a relief. I needed a night off from failure anyway. I ate alone and tried to think. By midnight I'd come up with nothing and tense as I was I knew sleep wouldn't come. I headed for the pool though I couldn't really swim. I more or less did water aerobics. Exhausting my body was the only way avoid nightmares these days.

Being submerged in water didn't appeal to me. I felt like I was suffocating the moment I set foot in it, and that was why I did it so often now. It reminded me of the pain I felt inside even though it didn't show on the outside. It wasn't a good healing technique but I didn't want to heal. I wanted revenge.

It wasn't until my muscles were threatening to cramp did I leave the pool. I was heading back into my room when I saw him. Eric was leaning against the wall in the hallway as if he had always been there. Despite my best efforts his presence startled me. It left me frozen on the path to my bedroom. He looked as disheveled as I thought possible for him. It wasn't a far fall from his array of suits. He was just sans the tie and suit jacket.

"Hello," he said cordially.

"Hi," I replied.

"How was your swim?" he asked.

"I don't really swim," I said. "I float."

"Why is that?" he wondered.

I shrugged. "When I was a kid, my brother thought throwing me in the lake would teach me. I nearly drowned."

"You could hire a proper instructor now," he suggested. "With your Shadow Wraiths you would be safe while you learn."

I looked around myself. "I have never seen them," I said. "Are they invisible?"

He shook his head. "You have never called them,"

"Oh," was my sophisticated reply.

I waited, though he didn't say anything else but he was looking at me kind of funny. This was my opportunity to say something enticing. I've seen what women did to tempt men they wanted for whatever reason. Nothing I'd learned from their minds seemed suitable to tempt this vampire. So I nodded in acknowledgement and turned my back to him. I would go to my room and maybe brush up on my womanly wiles. I sighed. That was why this wasn't working. I didn't know half of what I was doing, and I hated him.

"Wait," Eric called after me.

I stopped and took my time turning to face him again. I was more curious than scared as he approached me.

"I want you," he said.

**~oooooo~**

With that admission, the look in his eyes changed so quickly it was like a switch being flipped. There was a certain hunger to the way he looked at me. He wanted sex. This is the opportunity I'd been waiting for and my heart sank at the prospect of what I had to do. I couldn't have it both ways. I simply couldn't let my heart work. I would double over and fall apart. Steeling my nerves, I held my hand out to him. He looked down at it, then at me, and closed the distance between us.

He nuzzled my neck and his hands caressed my arms and brought me flush against his rock hard frame. I couldn't do it, not with the air of gentleness he was putting on. I cupped his face and kissed him for all I was worth. Momentarily he stilled and then he crushed me to him. His lips were no longer testing and tasting. They were demanding and the brush of his tongue against mine was urgent.

I hadn't felt my feet move, but before I knew it my head was resting a cloud soft pillow. This wasn't my bed. We were in his room, a place I never set foot in before. I didn't let myself think about that now. I was on Eric's bed, kissing him just as deeply as he was kissing me. My fingers were wound around his neck and running through his hair. His hands were touching me in caresses that heated and inflamed my body's need. I learned right then that there was a difference between having sex and making love.

With Quinn I'd done both. This was nothing like that. I was just going to let Eric fuck me. The fact that it was happening now, after all that had happened meant there was no way I could ever be blinded by the physical act. I could never see anything more in him. He pulled away and looked down at me. His fingers were tracing the curve of my face in a touch that was barely there.

"If you want me to stop I will," he said. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to."

Damn him to hell and back, I thought. Once my head touched his pillows I thought I was at the point of no return. Taking an out hadn't occurred to me. His words, despite their prevaricatory nature, had broken through the cold wall I'd cloaked myself in to help me get through this act. Having him offer it shook my focus.

Those words sounded almost considerate. Had I not known better I would have really thought he cared. I would have perceived the softness to his tone to be real. I knew it wasn't. I'd witnessed the extent of his caring and mercy. I knew they were nonexistent. I could never see him as anything other than a monster. This pretense went no deeper than my body and the pleasure he could get from it. I couldn't tell him I wanted him because he would see the lie. I said nothing. I wound my fingers in his hair and brought his lips back to mine.

Eric returned willingly to my embrace. They moved down my body while his fingers continued to ignite my flames. He liked my breasts. He teased, tasted, and nipped at the buds of each mound in an almost reverent manner. His fingers felt good on my body but I hid their effects as best as I could. Even when he nibbled at my hip bone and my back arched involuntarily in response I didn't let myself cry out like I wanted to. I fought it.

I thought the worst of it had been over and he would simply take me, but he did something Quinn had never done. His lips slid to the inside of my thighs and found the apex of my sex. He kissed my clit and my whole frame shuddered. I could no longer stand looking at him. I'd stalked and tempted the beast but I couldn't handle it once it was off its leash entirely.

I needed something to pull me away from me, him, us, this... I needed something that would make it less consuming. The part of me he had destroyed rose to the rescue. I looked through him and saw my end goal. I gave in to the desires of the vampire looming over me. My eyes closed and I was imagining a warmer body. I was wrapped in a deep woody scent and different color eyes. I saw Quinn's face and my body relaxed more.

I thought I enjoyed sex before. I'd pleasured myself before, who hasn't? This was the first time I was experiencing an orgasm while having sex with someone else. This was in a league all its own. Eric sucked my clit deep into his mouth and caressed a deep secret place inside me with his fingers.

I fell then, into a place where my body ruled supreme. My past sexual exploit had an abundance of emotion which this lacked. Sex with Eric was the best I'd ever had. He wasn't even inside me, but the effects of his lips alone were earth shattering. Pleasure and passion of this magnitude was not something most women experienced.

"Tell me you want me," Eric said with his face over mine.

"I…" God, I could barely form a coherent thought, "want…you."

It wasn't a lie because my body did want him. It was my heart and mind that abhorred his every non-breathing moment. That aversion must not have shown because he leaned in and kissed me all the same. I didn't get the chance to register the taste of my own juices on his lips before I felt him pushing into me.

I cried out at the sheer size of his cock, but the noise was lost in his mouth. I was expecting this to be over quickly. I wanted it to be nothing more than him gaining pleasure from my body but it wasn't. Eric continued thrusting his hips, plunging his thick hard length in and out of me in a rhythm that was deep and hypnotic.

I didn't know how long he had been inside me, soon too soon I was fighting him all over again, trying to stave off another orgasm. I'd fought everything he had done to me since the day I met him. I'd fought his controlling air with defiance. I'd met his cool aloof manner with white hot anger. Oh, but I couldn't fight this. God knew I how hard I tried, but it became too much. In truth I expected him to be rough and cold. I'd expected pain. I'd expected to hate every minute of it but I couldn't he was too skilled.

There was no more refuting the raw physical assault with the profound hate. His body drove mine to heights that I've never experienced. The hold I placed over my body crumbled and I climaxed again. I hated him for it, but I hated myself more for enjoying it. It felt like I was falling apart at the seams, as if the world was crumbling to dust and when it reformed it was centered at the apex of my sex.

I was half out of my mind with the internal struggle, but he didn't slow. He continued his conquest and there was nothing I could do. Bullshit. I knew it was all bullshit. If only for these few moments where he pleasured it, my body didn't care who he was or what he'd done. It simply craved his expertise with a voraciousness I didn't know was possible.

In my head I knew all this was nothing more than a physiological response that he was able to draw from me because of his experience. Mentally that truth held fast but physically, I was gone. I'd lost all control since before he entered me. My body now belonged to him. Every push and pull of his thick length and powerful, talented hips gave him more of me to control. He was hitting places that had been unknown to me until his thorough possession.

I was hoarse from screaming. My body was sweaty and exhausted. Eric showed no signs of the same wear. Over my head, both my hands were intertwined in one of his. I was at his mercy and I wanted that to be a symbol of my life, but I could no longer think with anything more than my corporal being. It was then that his hands reached between us and flicked against a sweet bundle of nerves.

With a wordless cry I was thrown head long into heaven. It might have been hell. I didn't know. I didn't care. All I knew was that my body was burning and I was dying.

"Hush lover," he murmured, kissing me at the base of my ear, even that feather light caress added fuel to my raging release. "It's only a little death. Let it take you."

So I did. It seemed to last forever. Eric's fingers were fisted in my hair. His face was buried in the crook of my neck, but he didn't bite like I thought he would. His frame rode mine with greater insistence hitting that deep secret place harder and harder.

"_Ohmigod_," I cried out. "Don't...stop,"

I knew he was close too but he took me over the gates one more time or maybe my last orgasm never ended. I didn't know anymore. With a wordless shout I felt him shudder. Feeling him spurting inside me and filling me with his seed added to my pleasure. Until that point I'd been devout about condoms. I didn't know what it felt like to have a man come inside you. It was erotic and primal and bawdy and I was ashamed that I couldn't bite back a slight moan at the pleasure of it.

After Eric had wrung out the last drop of pleasure from me, and left me whimpering and trembling from aftershocks, he wrapped himself around me. I wasn't sure what to do at that point. I felt like crying but I fought it. Luckily for me, I didn't have long to struggle. Between the pool and the sex, I was exhausted and sore. I faded into unconsciousness.

"Oow," I whimpered sitting up.

For a moment I was disoriented. Then it all came back. This was Eric's room and I was in his bed. I'd had sex with him. It was necessary to get closer. It worked because I'd slept in his room last night. The first thing I did was soak in a bath, and tried to get the feel and scent of him off my body. I found that I'd gained some ground mentally. Since I heard that vampires could have sex I'd been dreading it. But the worst was over. There was nothing more to be afraid of, nothing more to lose.

I didn't see or hear from Eric for a three days. I never wanted to see him again, but as his absence didn't serve my ultimate goal. I had his direct line and I could call under some pretense of another. But lying was risky. Maybe I'd been a disappointment in bed and he didn't want a repeat. That was possible. All the things I knew about sex could fit in the palm of my hand. Preoccupied as I was with my thoughts and trying to blow my hair dry, I wouldn't have noticed him if not for the permeating void of his mind.

I made a noise of utter cowardice—something between an eep and a scream. "Jesus!" I exclaimed, throwing my hand over my heart. "Someone should hang a bell around your neck!"

Eric's lips curved into an almost undetectable secret kind of smile. "It would not serve the intended purpose," he said.

"That's just because you don't want it to," I said, not breaking the staring contest he had initiated. "You like sneaking up on me."

"I enjoy that amongst other things," was his vague reply.

His eyes didn't really look at me. It was more like they dissected and delved underneath. I was draped in a skimpy towel and I was fresh from a shower. It didn't take a telepath to know he was thinking sex. My body tingled with the memory. There was no fight this time to keep my heart from breaking. I was already in pieces. I knew I was to blame for tainting the last vestige of what was left of the person I'd been but I didn't care. I wanted revenge and this was how I would get it.

"I want you again," he said, with his eyes still raking over my body.

He was waiting for permission so I dropped my towel, and held out a steady hand in invitation. "Come here," I whispered softly.


	23. Chapter 23

**Eric**

**Chapter Twenty-Three**

I didn't want Sookie to own anymore of me than she had already. This was why I'd been fighting my hunger for her body. I'd spent the past few days fighting the pull, but it was a losing battle. I'd been losing it the moment the sun pulled me from the warmth of her in my bed - on top of her, owning my heart; my first taste of her body had left me mind blown and captivated.

With every spare second since I'd been obsessing about it, and my mind kept wandering back to it. My hands traced my body before dawn took me, imagining the contours of hers. I wasn't confusing sex for love. I was wondering to myself how I had ever gone without both or even an impression of either. I've been starved of blood once. Now I had found having to go without sex with my wife was strangely similar.

She was branded into my brain and I couldn't shake her. Suddenly, subtle nuances of her beauty I hadn't noticed before now haunted my waking moments. There was a gentleness to her that ran deeper than anything. She wore confidence and grace in as natural a way as her breathing. It shown through as an undertone, laying in the shy way she moved, the sweeter scent of her sweat and sex, and the gentle timbre of her passionate cries as my body thrust deeply into hers over and over again.

Before my wife I couldn't recall the last time I had sex. It was even stranger that sex with her didn't generalize the urge. It had a detrimental effect where other women were concerned, blinding me to them entirely. It was not about skill. It was not the sheer delight of the physical act alone. It was the closeness of connecting with Sookie in a primal way that somehow washed away everything wrong between us, if only for the time being, a temporary serenity.

"Come here," my wife murmured.

Sookie beckoned me to her and I couldn't deny what I wanted. I was done fighting; the war was over. She'd won and I never stood a chance. I loved her. I walked to her, unbuttoning my shirt as I went. The scent of her arousal was thick in the air, escalating my desire for her. As I gazed at her damp, gloriously naked body, I now knew without any doubt it was hers I craved most. I ached for that spark igniting as she surrendered, not to me – no, never to me - she was too stubborn, and would never yield to me, but she submitted with a tempestuous passion between us. We both did, as the spark grew to flames, and we both burned.

"Did I hurt you the last time?" I asked, stroking her face.

"Only a little," she replied, pressing her hands flush against my chest.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I will be gentle."

She nodded and kissed me. The promise of gentleness I'd just made was moving further and further away from my mind as our kiss deepened. The primitive part of me she so easily unleashed rose to the surface. I controlled the worst of it. As much I wanted her, I didn't want it at her detriment. I wanted to take my time. I wanted to trace every curve and dip of her luscious body with my lips. I desired nothing more than to always to have the taste of her on my tongue. Her flavor was intoxicating.

Her breasts, so full and firm, were pleading to be kissed and suckled. Slowly, I brought each hardened berry to my mouth in an attempt to savor the experience, licking and nipping in a way that elicited soft needy moans from her. I could barely stand it; her lips, her breasts; the warmth between her legs, I had to have it all. At a decadently delicious slow pace I left her breasts, kissing a gentle trail down the valley between them leading to her stomach, passing her curls, and to her center.

I gorged myself on the fill of her sweet flowing wetness while we lay in the middle of her bed. My actions increased her wetness and desperation for more than my tongue on her most feminine flesh. My fingers slipped into her sheath and we moaned together. Her moans were voiced from pleasure, while mine came from pain. This was but the sweetest kind of pain; it left my cock pulsing and throbbing with a frantic pressure to be inside her.

Her needy mewls were ended as her orgasm hit. Her head was thrown back and her fingers were desperately clenching the sheets in an attempt to keep from falling apart. Her control wasn't something I desired, not here, not now, and frankly, never, ever again. I just wanted her. I watched her face as her climax washed over her. The soft wordless cry tumbling from her lips sent chills down my spine. This was for me. Sookie was mine.

My wife was utterly magnificent when she climaxed. It was a sight to behold and I would always be awed by the marvel of its beauty. There was an assimilation of all the differing aspects of her personality I loved most; she was the fiery vixen, untamable coming into her own. Nevertheless she was also sweet, welcoming, and like a mythical siren she was seductive, tempting me to find my own release. The desire to see more of this was stronger than any urge to embrace ecstasy.

Sookie arched her back off the bed while simultaneously wrapping her arms around my neck and pulling me up.

"I want you," she moaned.

There was no care in kissing me even with the fact she could taste her honey on my lips. She kissed me and writhed against me in demand. I gave into her. I could deny her nothing, especially not this. I wanted to bury myself in her so feverishly that I didn't want to know where she ended and I began. The sensation of entering her warmth was like finding a piece of heaven.

"Am I hurting you?" I asked, trying to ease into her. Despite how much I'd prepared her I was of larger than average size.

"You feel so good," she said stroking my face.

Before I could reply she arched her hips and with her ankles coaxed me deeper inside of her. Watching her writhe wantonly under me was nothing less than spectacular. The rhythm of our lovemaking was slow. I wanted every thrust and every turn to count as I stroked deeper and deeper. Sookie fisted her hand in my hair, pulling just a little. I absolutely loved the way this felt. It wasn't enough force to cause pain. But it was just enough to have me begging for more.

"Do that again," I moaned, "Again."

Her response was instantaneous. She tugged at my hair, using the hold to draw me tighter into her embrace. I willingly submitted I tilted her hips and sank deeper into her depths. Her body quivered as she bucked against me in response. Her nails dug into my back. My hands gripped her hips harder as I fought for control. With everything move, every sound she made, it only made me want more.

"I'm…God…," she shuddered breathlessly, "Eric—"

Our fingers were intertwined over her head as I watched her come undone. This time she pulled me with her. I had to find release or I would shatter it felt like. My mind clouded and instinct took over. I growled as my fangs descended. My urge to bite was strong. It raged as my gums tingled, but the fear of making her more afraid me helped me refrain. I buried my face in her neck allowing the feel of her body to help me combat the thirst for her blood.

Unlike most humans, I'd long noticed Sookie took comfortable silence for what is was. She never ruined it with needless chatter. We lay together for awhile afterward. Our fingers were intertwined while I wrapped my other arm around her and played with her hair. This intimacy was different from sex.

This was just because; she was here as was I and I simply wanted to hold her, so I did. She fit perfectly against me. It was as if she was where she belonged. It was only the second time of holding her like this but like the previous time it felt right, as though we had been practicing it since the night I was made. The warmth of her body against mine, the steady drumming of her heart and the weight of her body as she laid partially over me, it soothed me in way that nothing else could.

"You have to go," she said after a while. It wasn't a question.

"Yes," I said not moving. "I have to work."

"You'll be gone a few days?"

I knew she was referring to my absence after our first encounter. She was looking at me from under her lashes. When our eyes met, she looked away as if she was expecting a rebuff. I'd made so many mistakes with her. All of them involved me making her feel unwanted. In the beginning it was because I hadn't cared. Afterward, I had no idea how to process the emotions she awakened, and I resented and even blamed her for the confusion I was feeling. Now I loved her, but, I knew telling her would overwhelm her.

There was no place else in the world I would rather be than with my wife, no one else I wanted but her. I'd thought the little I'd been doing would show her I favored her. To someone who knew me it would have been obvious that I was trying to please her. But she didn't know me and so she remained oblivious. I prided myself on never making the same mistake twice. What I learned was subtleness was not the way to go, not with Sookie.

"Not if you do not want me to be," I told her honestly.

She gave me a tentative smile and kissed the corner of my lips. "I don't want you to be," she said.

"All you have to do is ask it of me," I said, tipping her face up to I look into her eyes. "You have but to name it and I will make it yours."

"Stay," she said cupping my face, "Stay with me just for a little while longer."

I smiled and kissed her palm. Of all the things I could give her, she wanted so little. I could hear my phone ringing, but when my wife straddled my waist and guided my straining erection between her slick folds, nothing else mattered. She was my angel and being inside her was my heaven.

**~ooooo~**

Things were changing on a daily basis between Sookie and me and all was for the better. With every day that passed she was becoming more affectionate. Her kisses and the easy way she touched me were something I was accustomed to, but could never get enough of. I was earning her smiles. I was learning about her and things she liked. My curiosity where she was concerned was limitless. I was intrigued by everything she did or didn't do.

My trips out of town were becoming less frequent. When lengthy travel was unavoidable, Sookie accompanied me if the destination interested her. When I was local, I found myself rushing home to her and normally she'd wait up to serve me a warm blood along with a kiss. We talked about my work or what she had done during the day. Other nights we watched television, although they were mostly all programs of her choosing. I hadn't watched television actively since it was first popular in the late 1930s and early 40s. I enjoyed what she chose simply knowing she enjoyed it.

After its hiatus, my appetite for sex seemed to making up for the drought. Sex for me was hardwired to the mere sight and scent of my wife. Sometimes when I couldn't stand the ache of going without I woke her, and she was eager to give me all I desired. This was the way I started my nights and how she ended hers. When we made love it was always as fiery as the first time. She gave me everything I wanted, needed, and more than I could handle at times.

Three months later I was in New York because Alexander had been unsuccessful in reaching my delinquent child. Last I saw Pam she'd jumped out of a plane laughing as she went. She had yet to sign the papers or to turn in tax documents for the bank she was holding for me. She hated paperwork. It didn't get easier because we knew, despite all things being in order; she was going to get audited. I wasn't too upset because Sookie came along with me.

"Lover, meet Alexander. Alexander, my wife Sookie," I said.

My wife offered him a nod of her head. Her eyes were on the child on his hip. "Nice to meet you," she said politely.

"Likewise," he said returning the nod, "This is my daughter Andy, and she can introduce you to my wife Becca."

The child looked at my wife, gave her a bright smile, and held her arms up. "No baby, you can walk," her father said setting her down.

Gone was the bright smile. Andy looked entirely pathetic. Her hazel eyes were misty and big as saucers. Her lip trembled. Alexander folded immediately and picked her up. Sookie was shaking her head with a smile on her face. We all knew he was being had. I sympathized. Old as she was Pam wasn't above emotional blackmail either and there was only so much a man could take.

"You're a big girl Andy," Alexander said, rocking her. "Big girls walk, remember."

"Dada's baby," she said pointing to herself. "I go up."

He wasn't going to argue that point so he turned to my wife and begged an ally. "Would you mind terribly?" he asked, with a look of sheer desperation.

My wife chuckled. "Not in the least. Plus I'm not thinking Andy's giving us much choice," she said taking the child from him. "Come on baby girl." After kissing my cheek quickly, she and Andy left the room. I watched her go with a smile on my face. I couldn't seem to help that whenever she touched me. Reluctantly I pulled my eyes from her bottom and followed Alexander into his study.

"How goes it?" he asked.

"Good," I replied.

"Good as in good or good as in better?"

At his insight, my mind ran to other things I'd noticed, but didn't want to think much about. I was happy with my wife and she seemed happier with me. Yet, she hadn't officially moved into the room that had been meant for us to share. There were things of hers there, like her favorite old t-shirt, her toothbrush, hairbrush and so on, but she wasn't really there.

Nights when I was away from home and she was too tired to wait up, I found her in her room. There I would sit and watch her sleep. That image was just as captivating it had been the first time she caught me in her thrall. Only in those instances, I had sat wondering if it was familiarity of her bed that drove her from mine or was it thoughts of another man.

"Better," I finally answered. "The rest will take time." That was what I'd been telling myself. It was what I believed because I refused to believe anything else. During the worst of our relationship I wouldn't have thought this level amiable rapport was possible. So I didn't know what 'really good' with Sookie was. To me this was it.

"True," he said taking a seat and switching on his laptop. "But you've talked things through?"

"Yes," I said. "We talk."

He looked up at me. "Let me guess—you avoid the hard stuff like it was sunlight dipped in silver."

When he put it that way he made it sound entirely intentional and I had to admit to myself that it was. We had made progress and I didn't want to set it back. I knew where my wife was emotionally and I didn't want to upset her. Time and the right person would fix everything that was broken. She healed me and I thought I was beyond recall. I just needed to be patient with her. This was only a portion of the reason; the other part was me not wanting to face my problems.

"It's complicated," I said.

"It always is," he said nodding and handing me the proper paperwork. "You are two different species and there's history that isn't good."

I was going to answer when I heard the very familiar voice. Pam had finally decided to grace us with her presence. She wasn't alone. Illeta was with her. I hadn't known they'd remained together after Pam's 'flying lesson'. My sister didn't allow my child to get away with all the things I did. For that reason Pam didn't stay with her for more than a few weeks at a time.

Alexander tensed. "I can't stand her," he growled.

It was no surprise that he and Pam didn't get along. I knew she only hit on Rebecca to get a rise out of him. He knew it too, but where his wife was concerned his ability to reason was dimmed. I understood it entirely.

"Leta makes her act her age," I said.

We entered the living room in time to see Pam hugging Rebecca. I was amused until she exchanged a hug with my wife that also lasted a fraction of a second too long.

Pam only chuckled. "Zee! It's always a pleasure."

"Go Fu—" Rebecca elbowed him cutting his insult short. He looked down to where his daughter was waiting to greet Pam. "Go find something to drink," he allowed forcibly.

"Don't mind if I do," Pam said dropping into the sofa.

"Birdy," Andy called scrambling up on the to sit in Pam's lap. "Birdy up, Andy want up, Birdy."

"First you call me 'Pan', then 'Way-Bin'. What's with the Birdy rubbish? Say it with me," Pam said. "Rayy-vin"

"Wayyyy-Bin," she repeated hugging Pam. "Way-Bin Birdy."

Pam shook her head and tickled her. "I see you still don't speak English," she griped. "How long does it take? I don't have an interpreter." she asked looking at Andy's parents. "She's been alive for what? Five years?"

"Two," her father snapped. "Her speech is advanced."

"Spaghetti" Pam said immediately.

"Piss-getti," the child parroted. "I wike it,"

"I just like pissgetti sauce," Pam said flashing fang.

Andy laughed and mocked the facial expression though she was fangless. They headed towards the study and I knew Pam was giving her signature where needed. Alexander followed her while Illeta and Rebecca caught up. My sister looked better than she had the last time I saw her, happier. She saw me looking and smiled. Spending time with Pam and going on vacation brightened her spirit. Going away with Sookie would be a splendid idea; no work or guards. Reflexively I looked to the doorway where she'd been and found that she was gone.

"What's wrong?" I asked rubbing her back. She hunched over the kitchen splashing water on her face.

"Nothing," she said. "It's just late."

"We can go back to the apartment now," Pam being here obviated my presence. "You can sleep."

She nodded. "Yeah, sleep sounds great."

We entered the living room to say our goodbyes and found Alexander glaring at Pam who was making plans to go out with Rebecca.

"Sookie come on," Pam said flying to my side. Then she proceeded to rob me, reaching into my breast pocket she took my wallet. The only one that was surprised by this was Sookie. Pam just kept talking as she took all my cash. "Show at the Orpheum then an after party at Zee's club."

"I can't tonight," I told her.

"You weren't invited," she replied flipping through my credit cards and taking her pick. "Ladies only, no big bads allowed."

I looked down at Sookie. Her going out with them pleased me. They were my family. It would show her a different side of what it meant to be my wife. It would show her that while life in the spot light was tedious and constrictive there was the occasional night of fun and freedom.

"Thank you," Sookie said. "But I'm actually not feeling up to it."

"Ah," I see Pam said with a nod. "Short leash,"

The expression on my face mirrored Alexander's. "Behave," I warned sternly.

She put her hands up in a show of surrender. "I get it, you're from the 'Keep your wife in the house' generation."

I glared at her but she was in no danger from me and she knew it. Alexander gave me a look that said, _'See what I've been going through,"_ I did. It was funny when she razed him, not so much fun now that I was on the receiving end.

"What Pam means," Illeta said coming over to take Sookie's hand. "Is that we would very much like your presence."

"It really is a lot of fun," Rebecca added. She had perched herself on her husband's lap to calm him. "Plus going out with Illeta means no security detail."

My wife shook her head in a show of sympathy, "You too huh?"

Rebecca nodded. "Daemons,"

"Shadow Wraiths," Sookie admitted. If they were looking for apologies on the over protectiveness of their husband's they weren't going to get it.

"So are you in?"Pam asked wagging her eyebrows. "Make this threesome a real party,"

Alexander and I both growled at the clear overture. I didn't want to frighten my wife so I stopped. I didn't have to worry about her. She wasn't afraid she was enjoying Pam irritating me. It figured.

She deliberated a moment longer and finally nodded. "I guess I can sleep when I'm dead," she added wryly.


	24. Chapter 24

**Sookie**

**Twenty-Four**

As the four of us jumped into the back of a black limo, I had some hope that this would be a low key thing. I wanted low key. It was late and my mind was worn. For a minute back there at the house, the scene had looked so normal, the people had been so at ease with each other. Then you had a little girl that should have been out of place but wasn't. The only thing that was amiss was me.

I had looked as Rebecca talked with Illeta and Pam playing with Andy. All the people around him, made me look at Eric as a person. The deliberation of killing him felt wrong. No. Spending time with all these people wouldn't change a thing. I'd come much too far and sacrificed far too much.

"I haven't seen Matty in a while," Rebecca said excitedly. "Hopefully he has my size and can do something about my hair too."

I looked down at my clothes in confusion. I was dressed in jeans, high heels and a blouse. The ensemble was dressy like most things, I now owned but not overly so. No one had made mention of changing clothes. It was why I thought this would be a low key event.

"Matty, is their supplier of all things fashion," Illeta said cluing me in. "It's why this one," she inclined her head to Pam "Never packs when she leaves home or takes her wallet for that matter."

"Maybe I should go back to Eric's and change," I said. I didn't want anymore new clothes and I knew for sure that this Matty person didn't have my size.

"No need, Matty has been dying to meet you," Pam said. "Plus, I never take my wallet because me spending Eric's money makes him happy. With the two of us burning cash, he'll be thrilled." They all shared a laugh. I cringed internally.

The trip out that night had opened my eyes. Pam was nothing like Eric. He was reserved and moved with cool confidence. Pam was like a kid in a candy store. She said Eric's name like police officers used badges, she got what she wanted and when. She said, 'jump' and people, of all species were happy to comply. I realized, it wasn't that Eric didn't have emotions. He simply reserved them for select people and I was making my way up the totem pole.

**~ooooo~**

"It's my birthday," I told Eric. I hadn't expected him to remember. It didn't bother me in the least that he hadn't. To be honest, it had slipped my mind until Tara had called.

"Happy birthday," he said with a smile. "How would you like to celebrate?"

I told him. Tara wanted to have a barbecue dinner at my old farmhouse. She had invited Sam and Jason. It was a very low key and I wanted it to stay that way.

"I will pick you up after," he said. "I will have a present for you."

"Yes to the first part, no to the second, please."

"Why?" he asked getting dressed. Gah, he was even throwing on his suit for just the quick ride to the airport.

"I don't need anything," I told him.

"If anyone is allowed to buy you a gift it's me, is it not?"

He had stopped what he was doing and had his eyes on me. I hated when he did that. I could practically feel him probing at my mind without glamour. Those eyes of his gave the impression of seeing everything without giving anything away. I knew it was my imagination…still I wondered if it could be true. There was no way he knew I wanted to end him.

Deciding to give my feminine wiles a try, I walked over to him. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I brought his head down to mine. I felt him relax in my arms even before my lips touched his chin. I kissed the corner of his lips and he wrapped his arms around my waist. I was living a lie and there were moments where I believed it. Then I would remember just how much of a monster Eric was. My plan was working; I was creeping closer to my goal.

"I don't need anything," I whispered into his still parted lips. "And no offense, but I don't think you know how to give normal presents."

"I resent that," he said, planting errant kisses on my cheek, as his fingers were combing through my hair.

"Do you now?" I asked, leaning even closer.

"Emphatically so," was his somber reply. I could already feel his cock twitching and growing harder in his pants. He was holding me closer and molding me tighter against him.

"Pam told me for her hundredth and fiftieth birthday you bought her a private island in the South Pacific somewhere…" I wondered out loud.

"That's different," he huffed.

"Uh-huh. All I have to say is French Polynesia."

"How do you know about that?" he asked.

I gave a derisive snort. "That pervert offered to whisk me off to her island the day we met."

I laughed and found I'd been amused by the playful banter. Then I put an end to it by walking away to resume packing. The playful repartee had served its purpose. He wouldn't get me anything for my birthday. I didn't want a new car that I would never drive. I didn't want jewelry that was meaningless. I didn't want anything from him. In truth, it would be meaningless no matter what he thought to buy. It would be one less thing to remember him by when he was gone or more precisely, when I ended him.

Shadow Wraiths were interesting creatures, to say the least. The first time I met mine they scared me half to death. I was on a business trip with Eric in London. A reporter had been hounding me. Cypher and Lynx just materialized from my shadow. Where fairies left behind a shimmer in the air, Shadow Wraiths sucked out all the light.

They were hard to look at too. It wasn't that they were unsightly; they were physically alluring like all supernatural creatures. Unlike the hulking Britlingens, they appeared so benign, frail even, barely six feet, with eyes so light they might be blind and hair the color of red dirt. There was an air of delicacy to the paleness of their skin and the leanness of their muscles. This is what you notice from afar.

When you got close enough, your instincts will recognize them for what they were—dangerous. They didn't talk much to me or to each other. Eric said, it was because they didn't have a grasp on it yet. The longer they were in this world, the better they adjusted, but right now their personalities were like a prerecorded message and a conversation was like a game of Jeopardy. They had answers, but if I didn't word the question just right, we didn't get anywhere. They were my company most of the time, and as odd as my life was becoming, it wasn't too bad.

By the time I was touching down the sun was just rising on the horizon. My usual feelings of relief and freedom that came with it weren't as strong. They hadn't been for a while now. Perhaps because I was away from my prison and the vampire I was sentenced to share it with? No, that wasn't it. I was comfortable and well-versed in the lie I'd been living.

Staying my course on being resolute for my revenge gave me freedom. There was nothing that inhibited me because I was willing to do anything to get closer. When it came to sex…Eric has done things to me I never would have tried. He knew how to make me come with just his fingers. He had introduced me to acts that made my body tingle just from thinking about them; anal, oral - giving or receiving, and much more.

"Human Tara," Lynx said, interrupting my thoughts. (Yes, they addressed people by their genus.)

"Hey!" I greeted, hugging her. I wasn't expecting anyone to meet me here, but she was definitely here holding a pink sign that read "Birthday Girl!"

"You only turn twenty-six once," she enthused. "C'mon. I'm supposed to get you to your birthday present,"

"What?" I was confused.

"Just trust me," she said, tossing me a blind fold.

This cloak and dagger routine was so not like her, but the small treat had me feeling more excited about my birthday than I'd been in years. She might have gotten me socks and I would have rejoiced. It took every ounce of respect and dignity I had not to dip into her mind. Finally the car stopped, but I couldn't say where.

"Ready?" Tara asked, cutting off the engine.

"Yup!"

She pulled off the blindfold, and I was rendered completely and utterly speechless. I was looking at what had to be my little ole farm house except…it wasn't. It couldn't be. The bumpy driveway that would have alerted me to our location had been redone, but there was no denying I was home. There wasn't a speck of land that had been left out of the remodeling.

The lawn was as green as far as the eye could see and even my woods looked thicker. The flower bed had been touched upon, and the porch swing redone. There was a new coat of paint on the house and the shutters were new. The craftsmanship on the door was superb. It matched the trimming along the porch and roof.

In marrying Eric I had the means to remodel a thousand times over, but the idea had lost its' appeal. My life and everything in it had been changing so quickly, so drastically and I wanted to keep this one thing as a monument to my past, simpler life. That had been so foolish, I realized. I explored the house with my mouth hanging open. There were a million things that were different: the fire place, the stairs, and the attic that had been finished and decorated. The kitchen…

"I don't believe it," I whispered astonished.

It was the picture of country living and southern charm. My gran had spent free time looking in housekeeping magazines with such longing. This was the kitchen of her dreams. This was the house she deserved; from the brass handles on the soft yellow cabinets, to the floor, and the retro vintage stove. It was perfect.

It was all so new, yet so native to the spirit of what I'd known my whole life. It may as well have sprung from my mind and rooted itself in the ground. As I continued my inspection, I saw that some things were the same: the kitchen table, the end tables in the living room, and the rocking chair my gran had loved. They had all been restored.

Tara had been shadowing my steps as I took in everything. She apparently had nothing to say. There was just a low appreciative whistle as we both stood in the doorway of my bedroom and all I could do was nod in agreement. We were looking at a canopy bed complete with supple netting hanging over it. With the way the sun was hitting it, I half expected Sleeping Beauty to be in the perfectly-made bed.

"When he called looking to pick my brain I didn't think he'd come up with this." Tara said.

Eric hadn't forgotten. He had been playing me. I'd put this beyond him, it was just...so thoughtful. It wasn't that he disregarded me but he just didn't know how to not go overboard. According to Rebecca that was true for all 'Big bads' as Pam had labeled our husbands. I would never have thought Eric could find a way to keep the spirit of this house the same while giving it a facelift, but he had. He most definitely had.

All through the day I kept finding little things the beauty of the home that I hadn't before. I was awed. Dinner that night involved Tara and JB. Sam was there with a new werewolf female he was dating. Her name was Jannalyn and she struck me as too rough for Sam but I kept that to myself. Claudine was present with Dermot, but no Jason.

"Those are Shadow Wraiths," Sam's girlfriend said. She had been staring at Lynx and Cypher all evening like a kid stared at monkeys at the zoo. It didn't warm me to her nor did her pointing.

"They're right there," I said politely. "Ask them,"

"They can't talk to me." Claudine gave her a look of censure but she didn't seem to notice. Whenever she looked like that it was because someone was about to clue me in on something she or specifically Niall didn't want me to know. That was all the reason I needed to keep Jannalyn talking.

"Of course they can."

"Not in the way you think," she said. "I learned about them in Demonology 101."

Where in the hell was this college that taught Demonology? I needed a crash course. I spent more time with non-humans than anyone else. I watched, intrigued, as she clapped her hands and whistled to get the attention of my bodyguards, but they didn't seem to notice. It wasn't until she took a step forward did Cypher turn towards her. As was to be expected he wasn't friendly.

"They see only shadows that fall over you." Sure enough, her shadow was around mine.

"How come Lynx didn't look?" I wondered.

"You have two, so I think one is physical and the other is psychic."

She stared at me, and it looked like she was concentrating very hard on a math problem. Lynx looked at her and whatever she was thinking, she dead it and took a step back. "Hubby must love you lots because they cost a king's ransom each."

I enjoyed dinner and the small crowd though I felt a little removed. I felt like none of them knew me anymore, not really, but then again, I didn't know myself. Sam looked at me in concern and I smiled at him. This was one the best days I'd had in ages; shrugging my thoughts aside I focused on the people around me in order to enjoy it. It wasn't perfect because my mind was on Jason. He still hadn't shown. After I cut my cake and made a wish for Quinn, I decided to go to Jason's house under the pretense of bringing him a slice.

"He probably forgot," Tara said disgusted. "He always forgets."

That was true, but he would have shown up if only to ask me for money. He hadn't even called to make a sorry excuse. He usually at least made the effort to do that much. Now that I thought about it, I couldn't remember the last time I heard from him.

"I can do it on my way to close the bar," Sam offered.

His girlfriend didn't want to make the detour and she wasn't going to hide it, "Or you can send them," Jannalyn said. "All you have to do is give them his name and they will bring him to you no matter where he is, or his corpse if he's dead, but they might take a few bites out of it first. In physical form Shadow Wraiths are flesh eaters you know."

Sam slapped the heel of his palm to his forehead in a show of clear exasperation. "Christ woman! Could you try a less morbid point of view?"

"Sorry, sorry," she said, "I'm sure your brother's definitely not dead."

At that point, Sam began towing her out of my house. "Happy Birthday, Sook,"

"It was very nice meeting you," Jannalyn said as he pulled her out.

I didn't let Sam's girlfriend get to me. Tara was right. Jason always forgets. This year was no different. For a while, cleaning up took my mind off my worry, but after that it got worse. It progressed from a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach to feeling like I had ants in my pants. It was something that always preceded bad things happening to people in my family.

"Cypher," I called. He appeared to my left, in the darkest part of the room. Sooktacualar was all I had to say. "Is what Jannalyn said true? Could you find someone by name alone?"

"Yes," he replied, "I am shadow."

Something about all that information the Were had given me was bothering me too. From what I could gather I was their only focus. If that was true then they weren't the ones to tell Eric about Quinn. I'd been sure that they were. It was one of the many obstacles in my way. Eric might have sex with me, but he was yet to let dawn find him in bed and he still sent his spies to baby sit me. I couldn't risk making a move on him even if I could during the day, not with them around.

"You work for me and Eric," I said, trying to explain the thought.

He looked confused, a rare expression for such a starkly featured face. "I am shadow to Ashai," he said.

"But you told Eric about Quinn," I said point blank.

I was trying to read his mind, but as was common with non-humans all I got for my trouble was a headache.

"I know of tiger John," he said, with a nod.

"So you told Eric," I concluded.

"I know your vampire Eric," he said.

I sighed. I knew I wasn't going to get a straight answer out of him. I was more worried about Jason than a bitter past that wouldn't change my future.

"Jason Stackhouse," I said. "Find his shadow,"

He nodded and vanished. Cypher returned not five minutes later to the same exact spot. "His shadow here," he said.

Translation: he's alive. Well, of course he was fine; he just forgot to show up to my party. Jason was an inconsiderate jerk, not a magnet for disaster like me.

"Where is he?" I asked.

He blinked and I knew he didn't understand. Ugh. Before I leave here I was finding where that damn Supe College was and I was enrolling or at least using their library. "Where did you go to see his shadow?"

He nodded, acclimating that my first and second question were the same. "In vampire shadow in vampire club."


	25. Chapter 25

**Sookie**

**Chapter Twenty-Five **

Any person, fang-friendly or not, who lived in the tri-state area knew of the vampire bar in Shreveport. Even before I left home I had a front row seat to the heated debate. It was seriously the last place on earth I wanted to be. I pulled around back and I knocked on the service entrance. Not to my surprise, but immense consternation, a vampire answered the door.

There was an air of authority to him. "I am Sheriff Compton," he said, stepping outside. No fucking way I was setting foot in that place and he knew it.

"Congratulations," I told him. "I want my brother."

"He broke vampire law." he informed me.

"He's a dumbass."

"That is no excuse," he supplied.

"I'm not making an excuse, I'm stating fact. He's a dumbass, but I'm not. _If_ my brother broke vampire law, then by those same laws his punishment is left to my husband, not you." His face didn't betray any shock, but I knew he was expecting me to be ignorant on the matter. If only he knew the half. "You have five seconds, and then I'm going to call my husband and tell him you're picking on me."

"I'm sure he would never..." Eric said.

It didn't matter that in this darkness I couldn't see him clearly. I would know that cool baritone anywhere. "Hi," I said lamely.

"Hello lover," he murmured with his lips suddenly at the base of my neck. I felt his arm around me, and it helped ease the anxiety I felt at being out behind a bar late at night with some strange vampire. It's true what they say; better the devil you know than the angel you just met. In this instance I preferred the devil. If there was nothing else I knew, I knew that Eric wouldn't kill me.

"You were late to meet me." he said nipping playfully at my ear. Like always my body was miles ahead of anything else my brain had to say. I leaned into him and wound my arm around his neck.

"I'm sorry," I said sincerely.

"You are forgiven," he said kissing my temple. Then he turned his head toward the vampire by the door as though he was taking notice of him for the first time. To be honest I'd forgotten about him too. "I believe my wife made a request."

Eric's tone was cordial, polite, and so very respectful. At that exact moment, all the voids that were inside the bar scattered. Literally, one second there were at least ten vampires in the immediate area, and then just two. There was some kind of silent vampire communication and the other vampire nodded.

"Come," Eric said squeezing my hand.

The thought of leaving my brother there made me sick, but I left knowing that if nothing else I had vampire law on my side—for once. And I was sure that whatever my brother had done that other vampire imprisoning him without informing Eric pretty much negated it. It didn't change the anger I felt. I couldn't image what my brother had gotten himself into.

Eric drove me back to my house the entire way there he was silent and I wondered if he was angry with me. He was always touching me in some way but he appeared removed.

"I took Cypher and Lynx," I said trying to test the waters.

"I am glad you did," he said. He smiled at me and held my hand as he continued to maneuver effortlessly through the night. We arrived at my house and I had yet to shut the door when I saw the headlights turning on my driveway. I read the minds of the occupants. Two were Eric's personal guards. One was Jason.

"Hey," my brother greeted, walking past me.

Hey? That was it? He thought he was just going to sidestep me after the lame greeting without an explanation or a thank you? He thought wrong. When Jason opened the door to let himself into my house, I slammed it shut, narrowly missing catching his fingers in the jam.

"What did you do?" I asked, rounding on him.

In the past I'd stayed out of his mind as a courtesy, but he had exhausted my consideration. He was dumb as a bag of hair and I was stuck with him for the rest of my life. I resented that fact as much as I resented Niall and Eric. I asked that question and I saw the whole story in his mind. I saw how he had hooked up with a groupie who had been trying to get to Eric. She was addicted to V. She had introduced him to it and they had been burning his money to get their high.

Somehow the Rattrays had gotten involved. They had the bright idea to catch a vampire to support their habit. The vampire had died as they drained him. I could see that my brother didn't want to hurt anyone. I could see that he wanted to stop it, but it wasn't enough this time. I was horrified, disgusted, and so very furious.

"You stupid, selfish, sonofabitch!" exploded, "How many lives do you think I have to sacrifice for yours?"

My God! What the hell was wrong with me? How plainly did he have to spell it out? He lived his life, and I spent mine cleaning up his messes! For crying out loud, it was my birthday and look what I was dealing with! The sad part was I would have been content if he had just forgotten and stayed out of trouble, but no, he couldn't even give me that much.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I didn't mean for that to happen."

That was the problem. He never thought anything through, but he was always sorry as I was paying the price for his stupidity. "Fuck your sorry!" I shouted, I hadn't realized I was attacking, slapping and kicking him until I felt Eric pulling me back.

"That is enough," Eric said,

I was fighting the hold, but it was like having steel garters strapped across my waist, pinning my arms to my side. I kicked, and he lifted me off my feet entirely.

"Calm down Lover," Eric repeated, "If you harm yourself in my arms or his they will pay us in kind."

I looked and found that while my Shadow Wraiths had disappeared once Eric had returned, they were back now. All I could see of them was their pale glowing eyes. Both pairs were trained on Eric like a fat kid eyeing a chocolate cake. Batanya and Clovache were winging Eric, ready to take on the threat. This wasn't what I wanted, not here, not while I couldn't be sure of the outcome. I let my body go lax.

"I tried to stop it," Jason said, "You know I didn't mean any harm."

"Go to hell!" I screeched, fighting Eric's hold all over again, "Go straight to hell! You don't give a shit about me! You don't care what it costs me to be your keeper!"

This fury had been building since the day he had left me to walk home from school alone—I was seven. That childhood anger mounted with every nameless, faceless woman Jason had put ahead me. It continued to pile on with his cheap last minute Christmas gifts. Niall was right. I gave and gave in the hopes that I could show him what it was like so maybe he could one day return the consideration. All he did was take, and now there was nothing left for me to give.

"I'm done with you, Jason." I told him calmly. "You're on your own."

"I'm sorry Sook," he said, sounding contrite as the Britlingen began towing him away. "You're all I have,"

"Now you've got nothing," I told him, "Same as me."

The anger that had been so righteous and white-hot had faded. There was just pain. I got back in the car. Naturally the minute the dark sedan sped off the tears began. I hated that when I got this furious I cried. Before I could blink, Eric had his arms around me and my head on his chest. Being this close to him was becoming one of the most predictable places in my world. It didn't matter that it was all a sham.

"I hate him," I sobbed, "I hate him so much."

"You are angry with him," Eric said, wiping my tears. "It is not the same thing."

He was right, but I wasn't ready to admit it. The ride to the airport was silent as was the flight. Before I knew it, I was back at the house in New Orleans and in Eric's room, in his bed.

"I'm sorry you are unhappy," he said, wrapping himself around me. "I wished for you to have a good day."

"It's not your fault," I replied, and for once, it really wasn't.

It was my brother's. It was always Jason, but this was the first time in ages my brother's pain hadn't overshadowed my own. Earlier I'd looked at him and those fond memories where he helped me reach the tall shelves, or when he taught me to swing a bat weren't enough.

I was all out of sympathy. I was all out of pity. I was done. I took a patently clear glance at the bewildering, dark hollow place my life had become. There was no one to soothe my hurt or shoulder my burdens after Gran passed but Jason, and he had never cared to.

"I have something else for you," Eric said, pulling me from my thoughts.

I groaned long and hard, which made him laugh. "The house was perfect, beyond that even," I said caressing his face. "Thank you but sweetheart, I don't need anything else."

"You are welcome," he said rolling me to sit astride him. "Take this last little thing because it would make me happy for you to have it."

He was flashing a smile that was both seductive and roguish. In the spirit of the remaining minutes of my birthday, I nodded.

"Close your eyes," he said.

Again I complied. I heard the nightstand drawer open and close, and I cringed internally. The remodeling of the house was one thing. I knew this was going to be some obnoxious thing I would have to pretend to cherish.

"Happy Birthday, Wife of mine," he said, placing something square into my hands.

Okay. Not at all what I was afraid of. I was looking down at what was a plain a photo frame that appeared to have a black screen. I didn't know why my taking a blank picture frame would make him happy. Well at least he was trying for normalcy. This wasn't over the top so it would be easy enough to keep it.

"Thank you," I said kissing his cheek.

Eric rolled his eyes. "You are welcome," then he pushed a button on the side and it came to life.

The first thing I saw was Gran holding me at the County Hospital. I couldn't have been more than a few minutes old. The pictures played a slideshow of my life. All of them involved more of me and Gran than my own parents. I saw my middle school graduation. I'd begged and pleaded with Gran to buy me that dress. It wasn't until I got a job did I know how much it had really set her back.

The images continued to go further and further back into my past. I saw pictures of my parents as kids. I even saw Gran as a little girl with her parents and siblings. I saw her in her wedding dress. I saw her in her youthful splendor as I could have never imagined. She was so beautiful. There were even some of her parents' youths. So many of the pictures depicted my farmhouse in various stages of it's' life, including the latest remodeling.

Tears stung my eyes, and for the second time today I was speechless. "This is…" Words failed me and I kissed him. He returned the kiss briefly, but then pulled away. That was a first. I looked at him confused.

"I love you," he said, looking at me. I couldn't say it back. Not ever, the game would be over. He would know I was lying. "You don't have to say anything back. I only want you to know." Then he kissed me.

One article at a time we stripped off each other's clothes. He let me set the pace as he always did. I wanted slow and passionate. My body did, but my heart wouldn't let me. It couldn't forget who I was with and what he had done. If I did, then this would be the best birthday ever. I would let myself have that much if only for one night.

Without regard I let myself go, becoming more wanton as he got more frenzied. I wanted to make him as crazy as he made me when his lips roamed down my body. I was on my knees and moved my kisses moved to his sex. I was being painfully deliberate in my movements. I kissed everywhere except the one place I knew he was begging for me to. My lips were close enough to his thick throbbing cock so he could feel the warmth of my breath, but I didn't give in to him.

"Lover," he called. It was a desperate cry for release.

"Wait baby," I murmured.

He groaned as if he was in pain but nodded. "Yes," he said.

The rest of his body was arching, begging me to touch, and suck him into my mouth. I wanted to. One of the things I was more than familiar with was the taste of him on my tongue. It was a taste of victory. I continued to tease him and enjoyed the increasingly needy noises escaping him. He thrashed under me, moaning out my name with mixed pleas for release. Normally it was the other way around; I was under him and begging for him to finish me.

"Please," he begged.

Finally I wrapped my lips around his cock. "Yes…" he moaned, "Like that."

I took my time. He seemed to be fighting. He wanted me to take all of him, but he was squirming away. I picked up the pace and sucked him deeper and deeper into my mouth. What I couldn't fit, I stroked with my hand. I massaged his tightened balls, and with the moisture from my mouth, I lubed two fingers and breached his puckered hole. My fingers were deep inside him when I lightly dragged my teeth along his shaft and grazed the head of his cock. With a wordless shout he came. I swallowed all he gave, and milked out as much as he had to give. I've had sex with him enough to know this was just the first round. I wasn't wrong.

Before I could blink he pounced on top of me. His lips were on my mine. Then they traveled to my neck and he seemed frenzied. He kissed any part of me he could touch and felt him growing hard for me again. The normal care he seemed to take with me was gone. I barely got a chance to register the edge of ferocity to him before he flipped me on my stomach.

I knew this was going to be rough and my body could hardly wait. One of his hands went to the back of my neck, keeping my face down. His other hand held my hips and he forced me to the mattress and pried my legs apart with his knees. In the same move he shoved his thick member deep inside me. I choked out a moan as pleasure tore through me.

Eric fisted his fingers in my hair and tilted my head to the side. "I can't be gentle," he growled into my ear. "Can you take it?" The edge to his voice only made me wetter and more eager to receive him.

"Yes baby," I said, hiking my bottom up and spreading my legs father apart for him. "Fuck me."

He pulled back and slammed into me. His hands palmed the globes of my ass and he spread me open for his attentions. I felt every hard inch of him. He was pounding into me with more force than I thought I could bear. It felt like I was coming apart one nut and bolt at a time. I didn't want him not to stop but I also couldn't take much more but I tried. Over my head our fingers were intertwined. It was to restrain me and to give me something to keep me centered but that was the only allowance I received as continued to ride me hard and fast.

My third orgasm was chasing at the heel of my second, my body was sweat slicked and sore and I was hoarse from screaming. But I just wanted more. I could feel the familiar tension in the pit of my stomach reach a fever pitch. The more I moved with him the higher the sensation climbed. He wouldn't push me over this time. Instead he dragged out that moment where I was teetering and bracing for release. He dragged it out and I begged.

"Eric…ugh…baby please," I had no idea what I was begging for. It felt so good it hurt but it hurt too good to pull away. I took it because I wanted to please him and my body was helpless against the feel of his.

"What do you want my love?" he called in a voice that was pure sin.

"You," I moaned. "Want...you."

My mind was gone. I just needed to stop the madness or I'd be completely lost. He brought his chest down to my back and despite the awkward angle he found my lips. His hand reached around and rubbed my already engorged clit. His body rocked against mine and I moved into each deep thrust. My desperate cries were lost as I swallowed his groans.

The orgasm that had been stalled stunned my body once it escaped. Tears escaped my eyes and I felt the world explode over and over again. I was lost to this world and to myself. That abysmal place that only came from our coupling pulled me away.


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N: Sometimes things have to go wrong in order to go right...**

* * *

**Eric**

**Chapter Twenty-Six**

Even as I held my wife close to my side, I was already counting down to the next opportunity to be with her again. Despite the incident with her brother I'd still managed to turn her day around. I couldn't keep the smile off my face. Admittedly, it was more of a self-satisfied grin. But I'd finally done something for her that was not only dear to her but entirely meaningful.

Sookie didn't stir as I got out of bed, but she huddled deeper into her covers. With a parting glance, I exited the room. I just had to make a quick stop at the office and then I would come back to her. The faster I left the faster I would return. If I was lucky I would have a few minutes before dawn of watching her sleep.

I was somewhat shocked to find Bobby in the outer sitting area of my suite. He met me at the office these days. My wife now chose my clothes before I rose and catered to my needs before I left the house.

"You need to take this," he said, holding out his phone to me.

"This is Eric," I said.

"I didn't know who else to call," came the frantic voice. It took me a few minutes to recognize it because he was whispering and jumbling his words. It was Marcus, Illeta's assistant. "Pam—"

At the mention of my child's name I felt a dangerous kind of calm befall me. It wasn't like the anger my wife used to be so able to elicit. This was single-minded ferocity. Batanya was instantly in the room, though she looked a little confused. It has been sometime since I needed in her.

"Put her on the phone." I ordered. "Now,"

"I can't," he whispered. "I don't know what happened. She just kind of went still and fell—"

"Marcus," I called, interrupting his hysterics. "I do not care about the what or the why, just tell me where she is."

"Laguna Beach," he said.

"Go to her side and stay there. Help her if you can but tell her I am on my way," I told him. "Five minutes."

"But—"

"Five minutes, Marcus. Three hundred seconds, count them out. I will be there," I hung up.

Having only heard half the call, Batanya had called for my transport. Tavorian was a Britlingen on staff. He was very young and seldom called upon. His ability was teleporting. He could send anyone anywhere so long as he had the image in mind. The drawback was that he could only send one person at a time, and needed at least an hour to recharge between transmissions.

"I'll go," my guard said.

It made sense that she go. If I went and lost it because someone attacked Pam, Batanya wouldn't reach me in time to keep me from raising hell. Except that when it came to my child I would happily let the rest of the world burn.

"I'm going," I told her. "Meet me when you can."

I was in California with ninety seconds to spare. The scene at my sister's beach house was nothing like I was expecting. In truth I wasn't sure what I feared was amiss. Everything appeared as it always did, picturesque and calm. I caught the same scents although now there were traces of both Pam and Illeta's blood in the air, and if indicated by the amount of blood my child lost and her age… My world threatened to close in about me with these thoughts.

"Up here," Illeta called.

The relief didn't come as I sped off to the underground day chamber. The scene here was shocking. Pam was tucked into bed. That alone was so very wrong. She should be awake, smiling and being a pain. She should be laughing and chasing women; but she lay still as if waiting on the dark to free her. It was the middle of the night.

Illeta was worse off. She looked gaunt and haggard. Her hair was limp and her bones jutted out starkly against her skin. She looked as if she had been drained to within an inch of her life. Her wrist was bandaged because the amount of blood she lost wouldn't let her heal. I couldn't fathom what had happened.

I opened my mouth but she spoke over me. "Do you remember what she wanted for her hundredth and fiftieth birthday?" my sister asked.

With that question it all clicked. Illeta had been so happy as of late. She had been leaving her affairs to manage themselves. She had been spending more time with Pam, spoiling her in ways she never did before. She hadn't been on a vacation; she had been saying goodbye. The pain of this revelation rendered me speechless.

"She wanted to fly," she said answering her own questions. "She wanted the one thing you couldn't buy her so you bought her the island instead. You invested in any nutcase who believed it possible, just for her. Now, with my blood she can have a semblance of it."

"Illeta," I said taking her hand. "Please, don't do this. You can't, not now, not after you have survived where so many others have perished."

She held my hand but in her eyes there was no change. "Do you remember the first thing I said to you after he brought you back with him that first night?"

Memories I never wanted and had long buried crept into my mind and it was for my sister that I let them take me. No matter how many grains of sand had passed through the hour glass of time I would never forget that first night. Ocella had found me walking home drunk. One second I was looking at him, and the next I was screaming in agony as he violated me. I wanted to fight, but I couldn't. My body refused to move. I wanted to die, yet death did not come, not until I was lost and not even after was my soul free.

"I do," I told her, forcing my pain aside.

"Tell me little brother," she said, coming to sit at my feet. "Tell me."

"I will love you," I repeated. "When you are broken and empty I will love you still. Long after all that you know, and all you hold dear has fallen into darkness and despair; my love will be all that remains. When the fires of hell rise to torment you and the clouds of heaven fall to shun you, when you have nothing and are nothing, not even then will my love cease to be." She had held me because she knew that while I was suffering it had only been the beginning.

"A thousand years," she said resting her head on the back of my hand, "A millennia, Eric, and still I love you."

"Leta, please," I urged. I looked at where Pam lay peacefully on the bed. Yes, I was begging for me but I was also speaking for Pam. "What am I to tell her?"

"Tell her what I told you so long ago," she said, kissing my wrist. "Tell her this is my one selfish act against you. Tell her I love her. Tell her my time was done and while I could face the uncertainty of the veil, the judgment of the gods, I could never bear witness to her pain."

I was wrapped up in my piece of heaven less than an hour ago. I could smell my wife on my skin. How was it that things turn so ugly so fast? My sister was going to lead herself beyond the veil and I would have to let her, not because I wanted to, but because I understood. Illeta held my hand in hers as she used to do after I'd suffered the worst of our maker's attentions. As in those darker days, we didn't speak. We took whatever silent solace where it could be had for souls as broken as ours.

Illeta had been my light in the dark when all others had gone out. When I felt the Gods had cast me in a place their eyes did not see; when I had nothing, when I was nothing, I had Illeta. Her scent and face had been a constant through the ages. Hours could have passed or maybe even days. We didn't notice the passing not until the sun rose and I knew my time with my sister was done.

Then for what was the last time, my sister came and hugged me. "She knows you need her to need you," she whispered. "She knows that if she doesn't then there will be nothing to hold you to this world. You have to live, Eric, otherwise she never will, not really."

I said nothing and continued to keep her crushed to my chest and the safety of my arms. Beyond my embrace the sun waited to steal her away.

"Are you afraid?" I asked.

"No," she said rubbing my back, "No, fear has kept me tethered to this world but now I am at peace."

Despite the pull of the sun's rays, I watched my sister meet her fate from the safety of her enclosed porch. It truly was her one selfish act against me. Nothing hurt me more than seeing Pam distraught, but I would have to tell her the truth. I would be ripping her heart out. Me, the one person who had promised her love and safety, would have to do that to her, my child, my Pam.

I opened myself to the ties that bound me to my sister. The physical pain was fleeting. It was overshadowed by relief. She walked west towards the water, and by the time she reached the shore, she was gone. The wind carried her ashes and pulled her clothes out to sea. The emptiness in my chest roared, making the silence of being alone in my blood-ties louder. No one left in this world knew and understood the hell I suffered. There was now just me and a dark past waiting to consume me.

I rose at dusk minutes before Pam. "Illeta," she said springing awake. "She's…" she looked around and I could see her senses perceive what was. "Where is she?" she asked me calmly.

"She's gone," I told her, "You know she is."

"No she's not!"

Pam got up and tore through the house, calling for someone who was forever beyond her reach. Her newly inherited telekenetic abilities surged with her grief. Despite finding nothing she continued to search, sobbing as she went. When she got outside and caught the scent of ash mixed with sand, she fell to her knees defeated. My child screamed and cried for Illeta to come back to her. When that didn't work she screamed for me to help.

I gathered her in my arms. I kept her cradled against me, knowing I was the reason why nothing like this had ever touched her. Between Illeta and me, Pam had never had to admit a lost battle. It was now both a source of pride and shame.

"It's okay," I lied. I had no idea if anything would ever be okay again. "I will love you. When you are broken and empty I will love you still. Long after all that you know and hold dear has fallen into darkness and despair; my love will be all that remains. When the fires of hell rise to torment you and the clouds of heaven fall to shun you, not when you have nothing and are nothing not even then will my love cease to be."

She sobbed and clung to me, but she told me what I needed to hear. "My love will never cease to be." I held her as she cried and for the first time ever I didn't try to soothe or buy her troubles away. There was no comfort to be had, not for what we'd lost.

**~ooooo~**

"Sir," Bobby called.

I blinked and looked up at him. I was back in my room in my house in New Orleans. It was a strange thing because I felt like I had been having a bad dream but from the pain in my heart, I knew it was real. It was all real.

"I'm sorry," I said to my assistant, "You were saying?"

"Mr. Beckett is requesting a meeting," he said, "Earliest available opening is in two months; do you want him moved up?"

"No," I replied, "That will be all Bobby, thank you."

I looked down and realized that other than my trousers I wasn't dressed. The other perfect pieces of the ensemble were laid on a perfectly made bed. It was like clockwork. All I had to do was reach down and put on my undershirt and the rest would follow. I couldn't make myself move; when I tried I felt the tears I'd been fighting so hard to deny. All the pain that went with the reality of Illeta's end and watching Pam suffer came through to the surface, so I continued to stare at the mundane pieces of clothing.

"Hey," a voice called.

For what to be the first time in a thousand years, I flinched because a human had caught me unaware. Sookie was standing at the foot of the bed. This should have been our room, but it wasn't, not really. Settling for second place was something I should never do, but it was better than having none of her. It was more than that; I knew that after her there was nothing else in this world that would offer me a shred of salvation. I loved her. It was a twisted, selfish, tainted love but broken as I was. It was all I was capable of giving and it was hers. So, she never had to love me back. I didn't ask that much because I didn't deserve it. Her pretenses were enough.

"I'm sorry I missed dinner with you earlier," I began trying to reclaim control over the moment.

"It's okay," she said sitting in front of me. "I heard what happened," she continued in softer tone. "I'm sorry."

I nodded and picked up my undershirt. I was blocked by the same obstacle. I couldn't make myself put it on. Instead I turned to my wife and asked her a hard question. "Are you really?" I asked. "Look inside yourself, are you?"

I knew she wasn't. How could she be? No one knew what I had lost today, not even Pam. My child was still in California, in Illeta's home grieving. Hurt as she was, not even she knew the half. Leta had been so much more to me than anyone could fathom. No one understood the pain; not only the pain, but the uncertainty I was now left with.

There was a possibility this day would come from the second that our maker had chosen us as his victims. No matter what I wanted to believe there was no guarantee that I was free of that same fate my sister had faced. Time in its infinite span was not my friend. It never was. In me somewhere I had always known and feared that. It was why I was always racing the clock. It was why I was filling the minutes with so many different things. I'd known. The past that I had fought so hard to escape would never let me go.

All the years I'd spent trying to undo all the harm I'd done was for nothing. The peaceful manner in which I tried to handle matters was for nothing. There was no such thing as eternity or forever, not for people like Illeta and me. We had been tainted by darkness and evil so putrid that we would never be free. If nothing else in this world brought us to our knees, then time would. Once upon a time, I would have simply accepted that truth and took it for what it was. Now I didn't want to. I didn't want to leave Sookie even though she wasn't really mine.

"She told me she was your older sister. With her gone it feels like the last anchor has been ripped away from the core of who you are." She smiled, and it wasn't the practiced one. It was so full of sadness that I regretted starting down this path. "Now you can't be sure that there was ever anything that connected you to this great big world. It doesn't leave you feeling alone, it leaves you feeling utterly alien. I know the feeling so, yeah, I am sorry."

Faster than she could see, I dropped to my knees and wrapped my arms around her waist with my face hidden in her lap. She responded by bringing her head to rest against mine. I'd simply wanted the comfort that only she could offer, but her understanding brought truth spilling from my lips.

"Illeta was a pillar when there was nothing else," I confessed, holding her tighter. "Her strength was never ending but now it is gone." What did that mean for me? She had endured so much more than I. "She's…gone."

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," she said. "I'm so sorry she's gone."

Her fingers gently scraped across my scalp, and somehow eased the worse of the hurt, though it made it impossible to keep my tears unshed then. She simply held me, and for a long time I just let her scent and touch wash it all away. Her hand cupped my face and she looked down at me. Her fingers wiped away the bloody tears from my face. The man I was ashamed my wife was seeing me cry but I felt naked. There was nothing left for me to hide from her. She leaned down and kissed my lids while wiping my tears away.

"Tell me how to make it better," she whispered, cupping my face in her hands. "I want to make it better."

"Make love to me," I replied.

If only for a little while she could make this world fall away. She unzipped my pants and they fell to the floor. I was lying back on the bed as she kissed her way down my body. She wrapped her lips around my raging shaft and sucked me deep into her mouth. I thrashed with the effort to not come. A part of me wanted all she had to give but I wasn't sure I could handle it.

"Lover—" I moaned.

I growled as she cupped my tightened sac and teased that part of me with her tongue. I was learning there was the physical act of sex with no emotion. I had both with Sookie. She made it impossible to control myself. I didn't have long to suffer. She mounted me and took me in all in one smooth motion. Her body was dripping and slick. Her eyes were hooded and focused on me. She smiled sweetly. She was equal parts tenderness and temptation.

There was nothing rushed about the way we made love. She rode me as if she had the rest of forever, and even as she climaxed, she cried out instead of trying to channel it by biting or scratching. She was here for me.

"I love you," I told her. "I love you."

I didn't give her a chance to reply. My lips found hers while my arm held her body tighter against mine. We moved in a rhythm that heightened both our pleasures. I knew she was close again, so very close. Her body rocked against mine with greater insistence. I kissed her neck drinking in the scent of her blood. She leaned forward in open invitation. Pulling away I looked at her seeking confirmation. I was quickly reaching the place where I wouldn't have the control to ask twice.

"I want you to," she moaned, "Drink baby."

I felt her body tighten around me. She wrapped her arms around me and brought my lips to her neck. I couldn't fight it and a part of me thought it wise to try…but I couldn't. The scent of us was thick in the air, and the allure of her blood was thrumming in her veins. I gave into what we both desired. She was coming when I bit and it extended her orgasm. She screamed my name and her body shook so badly, so wonderfully, I found myself having to hold her tighter to keep from making the puncture wounds worse. With a muffled growl I found release.

Sookie was still trying to catch her breath when I heard my phone. "I need to go," I said, hating the fact.

"There is a difference between have to, need to, and want to," Sookie said. "You deserve a day of "want to." So, what do you want?"

"I want to stay here with you," I replied sincerely. It was the only thing I ever wanted.

She grinned at me and got out of bed to bring my phone to me. "Bobby, call Monica, I won't be going into the office. I will be unavailable tonight."

Silence greeted me on the other side of the line. If he was trying to recall the last time I had a day off, it was probably before his father was born.

"Yes sir." he answered.

Then my wife confiscated my phone. It made me cringe as she turned it off but I let her toss it into the nightstand. After which she walked to my closet. She rummaged around for a few minutes. When she began cursing Nancy sharply for not buying me normal clothes, I couldn't help but laugh.

My wife's temper was absolutely horrid, but I found it sexy as hell. Not to mention that her affinity for profanity was unique; I don't think I've ever heard some of her curse words were ever heard on land or sea. She finally emerged with several items of clothing. One was a pair of jeans I didn't know I owned, a long sleeve t-shirt as well as a pair of boots complete with socks.

"Disguises," she said with a devilish grin. "No guards or cars, handsome, just you and me. We're sneaking out tonight."

* * *

**Where do you think it's going? ****Is she for real or is faking? Is it a trap or a change? I want to hear your guesses. **


	27. Chapter 27

**Sookie**

**Twenty-Seven**

I'd only invited Eric out because I felt sorry for him. Watching someone, even someone like him be so bereaved caused a moment of...not weakness but deep confusion within me. It had been doubly confusing because I should have taken pleasure from his pain. I wanted to but even the mere thought of doing so had left me feeling hollow.

The truth was, I'd found something I had in common with him despite myself. I didn't want to empathize or feel anything other than cold hard calculation or mind numbing pleasure but that kind of total loss was a rare and harrowing thing. I knew all about it. When my parents had died, it had left me feeling like the last leaf on a dying tree in an abandoned forest. Sometimes after school I would linger and watch as mothers and fathers picked up their little girls and greeted them with hugs and kisses. I would dip into the minds of my classmates and want and wish so badly for what they had, what they took for granted.

When I'd begun down this road to end Eric, I'd expected seeing his tears to be more fulfilling. It hadn't been. It had been sad and it was made worse by the fact that, despite her association with Eric I liked Illeta. She had always been kind to me. Wanting Eric gone did nothing to negate the fact that she'd taken her own life. I couldn't ever image wanting to end pain so badly that the uncertainty of death was a relief.

Now that I was including him in the only part of my life that was mine alone, I had to wonder why. I could have lied and done something else with him, something meaningless. We could have stayed in bed all night long like we often did. That would have been a distraction for him. It would have taken his mind off Illeta but…I didn't feel the sense of victory I often experienced when we had sex. That earlier encounter had come dangerously close to being more than just physical. I couldn't continue to offer him comfort with my body so taking him out was the next best thing.

Hand in hand, Eric and I took the back stairs that led from the kitchen into the edge of the garden. He looked around and pulled in scents to pin point where the guards were.

"There's no need for all that," I said. "I got this,"

"This should be interesting," he commented with a shake of his head, which pretty much equate to, 'We aren't getting far without my superior vampire senses'. Hah, little did he know. I did this all the time.

I stuck my tongue out at him and fanned out my sixth sense. In three seconds flat I'd accounted for all the guards.

"They're over there," I pointed straight ahead, "There," immediately to the left "And continue to space out evenly." I pointed all around us.

They pretty much formed a loose circle all around. But for the most part they only patrolled the outer perimeter of the house. This made sneaking out easy but getting in was impossible. I got caught by Hellion the first time and every time there after. He always turned a blindeye to me. I would be forever grateful to him because of it. It kept me sane during my house arrest.

"Okay, I'm impressed." He admitted.

I smirked. "Some of us get by just fine without super senses," I boasted. "Cypher," I called sticking to the shadows.

He appeared looking like a waif in the dimly lit area. "Ashai," he said with a nod.

"Hi," I greeted. I waited for him to say hello but we hadn't gotten that far in communication yet. I sighed internally, one day though. "Could you please go up to the gate and shadow the guard?"

He nodded and left. This was how I always got out of the house concealed. He would go do his foggy shadow thing around the main post and I would walk right out the front door. It was then it occurred to me that Eric had seen all of that. He might get angry that I was using my guards to come and go undetected. He might take them away.

"Figures," he huffed, taking my hand. "Your affinity for finding loopholes is uncanny."

I took it as a compliment and kissed his chin. He pulled me into his arms and kissed me properly. He was giving off a different air, as if the clothes were affecting his personality. That couldn't be. He was just off his game and so was I. I was lost in the feel of his lips. I didn't notice when my feet left the ground below but when I looked down I was hovering above the house.

It took a few blinks of my disbelieving eyes to accept what I was seeing. I was flying. Holy shit! I was flying. I clutched at Eric's shirt for dear life and would have screamed if he didn't clap his hand over my mouth. There was big grin on his face. Apparently, he could fly. I punched him which only made him laugh as he flew us undetected over the front gate. We didn't go far, just to the French Quarter.

As we walked I realized if I had to put a label on this, it would be our first real date. There was no emotional significance. If anything I was lost in the alien and eerie ease to which we browsed through the many shops. No one was staring or photographing us aggressively. Our guards didn't have to part a sea of protesters or admirers. Even when I dipped into the minds of people around us, they found Eric attractive and thought he resembled '_The Vampire_' but that was it. No one actually thought he was him.

I kept stealing furtive glances at Eric. I'd picked out the clothes, I'd watched him dress but I still couldn't acclimate the two personas. The jeans; the boots and his hair, so enticingly mussed from his fingers and mine, all of it looked nothing like the man that had graced the cover of Time Magazine. He looked rugged, approachable, and normal. When he displayed those human mannerisms, like tucking his hair behind his ear or putting his hands in his pockets they blended as well as his clothes. I shook the thought aside and focused. That night I got a clearer glimpse of my enemy.

As we walked I shared with him places I frequented, one of which was a book store. Eric came and he seemed interested but he had no preference in anything. I never noticed it before because he always let me choose, but for someone that had so much power and money, he didn't _do_ anything. He didn't know what music or movies he liked because he never took the time. It was that, and I think his unwillingness to want to distinguish one time period from another. What was the point if it would all be gone in a blink?

**~ooooo~**

That first date was the first of many and I took Eric opening up to me for the victory it was. Spending time with him outside the bedroom allowed me to learn about him. With every outing we had, I found out a little something. It all got me one step closer to where I wanted to be.

Ultimately, my goal was to get him to let me sleep beside him during the day, no Britlingens, just him, the sun, and me. There was nothing that would change that course. It was to the point where I felt like I had to do it. I'd come too far. I'd sacrificed too much.

"Aren't you hungry?" Eric asked, gently squeezing my hand and pulling me from my thoughts.

I idled and looked back. We had just walked past a restaurant that was fast becoming my favorite. The food was out of my thigh's worst nightmares. It was Cajun cooking at its finest. He didn't seem to care that some of the venues I went to had nothing to offer him though.

"No," I said leaning closer into him. "At least not for food."

These little subtle gestures of affection and enticing comments no longer took work or thought on my part. It just happened. My body sang like a finely tuned instrument whenever he touched me, and when we had sex I went up in flames with a predictable chemistry like fire on paper.

"I won't keep you waiting," he said. The look in his eyes promised me all the decadence I could handle. No, I hadn't forgotten the monster. I never would but I enjoyed the pleasure it gave me.

Eric let go of my hand so he could wrap his arm around my waist. We ascended and I couldn't help but hold onto him just a bit tighter. It was more from a delighted thrill of flying than fear. This was our way home. We walked around the French quarter. After we got past the sights and people, he would fly to the car.

I was looking down at the night life in the distance from St. Louis Cathedral. It was all lights, and I couldn't help but feel rejuvenated. Despite having lived in Louisiana all my life, I'd never traveled to New Orleans before moving here. Here I was walking the roof tops of the heart of the French Quarter.

I always knew more about the south than Eric due to my love of reading. Being a general know-it–all, he asked all kinds of questions. I had answers. It was a nice reprieve. I was telling him about the Treaty of Fontainebleau when his grip on my hand suddenly tightened. I stilled and looked up at him.

First, he cocked his head slightly left and then his features turned to stone. That was the last thing I saw before he launched us off the roof. I didn't see much because my face was in his chest and he was barreling through the air at break neck speeds, not the leisurely pace that was normal for Air Eric. There were loud popping noises mixed in with the wind whizzing around me. But he was maneuvering like a pro. The moves were for evasion and they were complete with twists and loops that made me glad I hadn't eaten.

Something happened. Eric shuddered and let out a hiss. And with one last twist, I felt the impact of a rough landing. When I opened my eyes his were staring up at me. He looked worse for the wear, but I felt fine. He had broken the fall.

"Are you alright?" he asked stroking my cheek.

Maybe his ability to fly malfunctioned? Given his track record, I didn't think that was at all the case. To begin with, his voice was calm and it unsettled me. It took me a second to realize why. That aloof tone was not one I'd heard since we started having sex and dating. This was the vampire who was known to the rest of the world, and not the one I'd been getting to know.

"Yeah, you?" I asked.

"I'm annoyed." He said, pulling us up. "Someone shot me."

It was then that I caught all the void minds that surrounded us. There were a lot of black holes. Eric didn't seem as concerned as he should be about it. He'd been shot, but that didn't seem to concern him either. He was brushing his hands over my clothes to get them clean. My eyes were fixed as the circle began to close in around us.

"You got sloppy," a voice called sounding almost disappointed. "I knew you would if given enough time, leaving home without guards, and walking the same routes. For fuck's sake man, you didn't even catch the ambush until you were beyond the main traffic area. Frankly, I think they over paid for this job. You're fucking pathetic."

"Language," Eric gently chided.

He might have been a teacher addressing a rambunctious student. He caressed my back as if the vulgarity had been a wound. Would I prefer not to hear the f-bomb from a would-be-assassin? Certainly, I wouldn't. Was that my biggest concern at the moment? Fuck no! I saw no way out of this, but Eric didn't act like we were any danger. For all the concern her showed someone had simply cut him off in traffic.

Where were Cypher and Lynx? I wondered. I was in trouble, but I looked around. No one was close to my shadow but Eric, and they weren't worried about him. "I'll call…"

He placed his fingers over my lips. It calmed the panic and served the intended purpose of getting me to be quiet."Hush, I need you to trust me when I say that would be very bad," he instructed in a softer tone.

I nodded.

"Hands around my waist, my love." His thumb stroked my cheek. "No matter what happens: Don't. Let. Go."

I did as he said, but from my peripheral vision I saw I wasn't the only one to stare at him dubiously. He kept me where I was, with my face against his chest. One of his hands wound behind his back and his fingers intertwined with mine. The feel of his arms around me helped me feel safer but that was an individual thing. The two dozen vampires would rip that security away in no time at all.

The air grew cooler and damp with the threat of rain as the night got darker. Even the man holding me seemed to grow more electric. I thought he was trembling, but I had no idea why that would be. It might be fear clouding my mind. It had to be.

"By the spray and pray gunfire routine, I'm going to assume you do not know who I am." Eric said.

"Horseman of Apocalypse blah," the same voice taunted. "Vampire Boogey Man, double blah. I'm not impressed."

"Pity, let's see if I can change your mind," Eric said in an eerily calm voice. "Shall we?"

Then all hell broke loose, or more precisely the sky looked ready to implode in on itself and the heavens threatened to rain down over our heads.

I've seen lightening as it lit the sky. I thought it a beautiful thing even with the definitive clap of thunder. There was nothing beautiful about what I saw. It was nothing but an uncontainable force of nature being unleashed with pinpoint precision. The lot we were in was as bright as day one second, and I saw all the people that were to the right of Eric.

They were being burned to ash from the inside out it seemed. Their faces were contorted in pain as their limbs were fried to ash and blew in the powerful gusts of wind. The scene was so horrible that I couldn't look away. All their mouths were open as if they were screaming but I heard none of it. Consecutive peals of thunder made me deaf to the sounds of them dying. Darkness returned and with it was a silence as profound as that of the grave.

Eric was still trembling and his grip on my hand constricted. I squeezed his back as much as I could to get him to let go but it was useless. "We need to go," I said. "Eric, we have to get out of here!"

"Can't...calm down," he groaned out as if he was in pain. "Help,"

I had no idea what he had done. I couldn't even begin to guess at it, but it had taken a toll. A I was familiar with a calm Eric. I wasn't used to having to calm him, but that was what I did now. I took deep breaths forcing my heart beat to steadily even out though I very much wanted to freak out.

My free hand stroked his back. I ignored the wetness I felt on my fingertips knowing it was blood. Forcing the thought aside, I leaned more of my weight into him and held him tight. I felt the difference after a minute. He'd thawed, not by much, it was noticeable. It no longer felt like I was against a quaking brick wall.

"Talk or sing, your voice helps." he ground out.

Deciding he would get a kick out of my terrible singing voice, I went for it. By my third flat note he had eased his grip on my hand. I didn't even get to the end of the popular 'Beyoncé' ballad. By the way he was taking deep breaths at inappropriate times I knew he was laughing at me.

"If I didn't already know I couldn't carry a tune I might be hurt." I said.

He finally gave up hiding his amusement and laughed outright. From the first time I heard it, the sound of him laughing was like being in on a secret joke. I knew it was an elusive thing that few witnessed.

"In what world does what you just did qualify as singing?" he asked in all seriousness. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Bite my ass you big bad," I retorted.

He chuckled, but pain furrowed his brow. It took me longer than it should to realize that he was leaning heavily on me and easing off his left foot. I wasn't sure if he was just putting on a macho front, or if the wounds he had suffered were as insignificant as he let on. Now would be a good time to try my hand at taking him out. I didn't need good odds, I needed a guarantee. I had to wait.

"You okay?" I asked trying to shoulder more of his weight.

"Yes," he said, and he began limping to a nearby tree. I followed. "It's going to rain," he continued, leaning back. "We'll wait. Batanya will be here—"

"Right about now," the muscle-bound daemon said, skidding to a halt amidst the scene. She was out of breath as if she'd run a mile in a minute. She was also wearing green sweats and a t-shirt instead of her uniform, which was an absolute first. Frankly I thought she slept in that formfitting black getup.

"What the shit?" she said, coming to wrap her arm around Eric's waist, and taking him from me. "You said you were going to bed." Then she stopped and looked around and as if confused. "You don't need me," and she sounded stunned.

I frowned. Well what the fuck did her comment mean? She was always closer than his shadow but he didn't need her at night obviously.

"There is a bullet in my leg," Eric said.

"That's not what I get paid for," she said, continuing to help him walk.

Despite being several inches shorter and lighter, she pretty much carried him. I realized that I didn't like her and that I never really had. It was different than the dislike I had for Nancy. That had been petty, this wasn't. Eric seemed to prefer her help to mine. I wasn't jealous. I just…I didn't know what I was. It didn't matter. I saw Batanya as what she was, the biggest threat to my end goal.

* * *

**A/N: I know a lot of you are eager for the Quinn great reveal but be careful what you wish for is all I'm going to say. **


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N: **Eric is going to relive his past and some readers might find it offensive. I wanted to add that disclaimer so no one flames for not being warned.

* * *

**Eric**

**Twenty Eight**

I looked over at my wife. I couldn't guess what she was thinking. I knew it couldn't be good because she wasn't even looking at me. There was a tense set to her shoulders and her eyes were facing the window as if captivated by the thick sheets of rain washing over the pane. She was afraid of me again. She had to be. For the second time, she bore witness to the truth that I was a monster.

It was like the old days. Ocella would use his ties as my maker to rile and incite me then unleash me, and like a rabid dog I would attack. No matter how badly I wanted to stop, no matter how hard I fought, I always lost myself to the madness within. I couldn't see. I just felt rage. It engulfed me. It shackled my mind and roared through me with so much force it often left me screaming and on my knees. The pain would trigger more fury and the current just continued to increase until I was wrapped in a warped whirling cyclone of the two.

Today there had been no edict to compel me or a maker to manipulate my emotions. The thought of someone harming my wife was the only switch needed. I was already gone, and having her call her guards would have made it worse. So, I'd told her not to let me go and she didn't. I'd trusted myself not to hurt her and I hadn't. The fury had been there. I'd been ripped into darkness and pain but I wasn't completely lost. Somewhere in the haze I saw Sookie's face. I could feel her arms around my waist, her hand stroking my back, and her heart thumping against my silent chest.

Batanya kept glancing at me. I knew she was still in shock. The day we had both feared had come, and we'd both walked away. She wanted an explanation but I couldn't give her one. Heeding my wife's call while in that state hadn't been a compulsion. It was an invitation to return to her, and I did. Her voice lulled me as it always did; it called back my broken psych; not to my control, but to hers.

Sitting in the car was hell on the injuries I'd sustained. I hadn't healed as I should have and the pain was only getting worse. It was silver. The sting of it on my flesh was familiar. While it burned me, it couldn't kill me. It was one of the things my maker had done to make me stronger. Once upon a time it had been my constant companion.

"Damascus can clean you up," Batanya said, helping me out of the car once we arrived at the house.

I looked to the side. My wife was still there and she was still quiet. She followed silently as Batanya helped me into the house and into the bedroom closest to the door. It was as far as I could get. It wasn't the pain that kept me off my leg, I had a very high tolerance; it was the bone or lack thereof. The bullets in my leg shattered my shin and knee and others ruined my shirt. That in itself was infuriating—Sookie had bought me this shirt.

Once I got settled in the room Sookie came and sat beside me. It was then that she was able to get a proper look at my face and she did a double take. I felt her confusion. She turned my face to hers and I knew what she was seeing, eyes that were a stormy grey and not blue. She took hold of my chin and stared a few moments longer as if she didn't trust what she was seeing. Her mouth opened and closed but she seemed unable to form words. I wanted to pull away from her touch but it wasn't something I was physically capable of it seemed.

"Your eyes?" she asked.

"I know," I replied blinking. They stung and my vision was a bit clouded. I'd fried my eye balls. That was always the only part of me that was affected. "They'll return to normal in a bit."

Surely, now she would leave. She must want to, so I gave her an out. "I don't want you to catch cold," I told her. "Go get dry."

She left and I watched disappointed but she only went as far as the bathroom and came right back before I had a chance to miss her. She wrapped a towel around her head. Ever so gently she patted my hair dry and ran a comb through it. I smiled at the gesture. I could tell her that having damp hair wouldn't affect me, I could sleep in the arctic and not freeze. But there were times when she truly forgot that I was a vampire and this was one of them.

Damascus entered the room with his tools in hand. "You don't have to watch this," I added looking at Sookie. It was a confusing thing; I wanted her with me but I wanted to spare her the gore.

"I can help," she replied while pulling my hair up as to avoid blood from my wounds from staining it.

My clothes were cut away. Damascus dug into my body and fished out bullets some of them had fragmented and spread through my body on impact. With the amount of time that had passed I'd partially healed around them. Now they would have to cut out and the flesh that was burned internally would have to be scrubbed away.

It would have been less painful if my would-be assassins had used pure silver and not simply coated lead with the substance. You would think that they had enough sense not to cut corners when attempting to take on someone my age. That was apparently too much to ask. My wife kept her fingers in mine. She was caressing my face at intervals and mopped at the blood from my wounds.

Finally, Damascus washed away the last bit of silver from my body. He set the bone in my leg and left. Unlike the flesh wounds, it would take a while to knit back together.

"I'll go get you a blood," my wife said.

It was at that exact moment that Batanya walked in with a heated blood. Unceremoniously she tossed me the bottle and I caught it. I held Sookie's hand, happy that she didn't have to go anywhere at the moment. Someone else might have not noticed but I was always so in tune with my wife that I registered the flickering in her emotion from concentrated and slightly anxious to…something else. I couldn't pin down exactly what. She was slightly agitated and something else, I couldn't say what.

"You guys need to talk," my wife said, rising.

"You don't have to go love," I said squeezing her hand.

She smiled. "I need to get dry. I'll be right back." She kissed me briefly and then left.

Sookie's gait told of her mood. I truly didn't enjoy making my wife angry, what husband did? But seeing her walk away when she was so full of fire was a sight. When she was angry, there was confidence to her swagger, not to mention sexuality. It said she was right and she knew it and no one could take that from her.

When I made her 'You are impossible and overprotective' kind of angry, I'd fuck her to get back in her good graces. It was usually a hair pulling, hard thrusting, ass pounding kind of sex, after which she was so spent and sated that she couldn't maintain her ire. At the moment, though, she was moving with a kind of uncertainty. The only thing I could come up with was that she was afraid, as she should be I acknowledged internally.

"I repeat," Batanya said. "What the fuck?" she asked.

Her irritation was due to the fact that she had to know the ins and out of the locations I was in before I got there. She could always account for every single person I was exposed to and assess their risk of pissing me off. Tonight, she wasn't able to do her job, not something that made the daemon happy.

I told her what happened and gave her the routes we took when Sookie and I went out alone. I had no intention of letting this incident ruin our date night and I wasn't about to expand it to include my guards. Batanya would just have to find means to secure the way.

"I already called her Majesty." My personal guard said after asking a million questions about the attack. "It insulted her."

That meant I would have to call Sophie-Anne myself and it was a real shame. I was in no mood for upholding the pretenses of her authority over me this evening. Seeing my wife was gone I took the opportunity to clear things up with the Queen.

"Sending your guard to me is an insult," she said in hello. Clearly she wasn't over her irritation. "I am your Queen. Do not forget that fact."

I think it was because Illeta was gone that individuals with an ax to grind thought to try their hand. My sister might have been powerful but she had always been less of threat than me. Unlike her, I had no control. Now that she had passed her ability to Pam, I wouldn't want to be my enemy.

"I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation," I told her calmly. "These piss ants shot at me and my wife."

"Your human—" she inserted.

I growled to cut off from whatever insult that was going to follow. Once I heard it nothing could save her. She wasn't only my queen, she was my sheriff. She was obligated by law to ensure that any who attacked was found and punished. I paid her ridiculous tariffs, I'd made my appearances at her numerous events. She was going to find out how this happened in the heart of her territory or I was going to assume she was responsible, and then I would make her pay.

"Allow me to clarify your position," I said in an eerily controlled voice. "If you do not do your job, I will insert someone in your place who will." And just because I was in a bad mood, I added, "You have two weeks. If you do not bring me my enemy I will come to claim your head." Then I hung up.

"Have Hellion pay her a visit every afternoon until her time runs out," I told Batanya.

She grinned. "I don't think she'll be able to concentrate with him following her from safe house to safe house."

I shrugged. "Then she should have taken your phone call for the gift it was."

I wasn't worried about Sophie-Anne. I had no doubt that she would resolve the issue. Someone attacking a resident—more importantly, a taxpaying resident—was an insult to her authority. If that wasn't enough to make this a priority I'd provided additional motivation. With my threat hanging over her head and Hellion stalking her for a few days, she would close the case in no time. She had been queen for centuries. If there was nothing else she knew, she knew how to keep her head.

Sookie returned to the room. She was dressed in her favorite old shirt and very short shorts. She crawled in beside me, very careful not to jostle me. I knew she had questions but I didn't know what to say. This wasn't something that we could pretend didn't happen. She saw me annihilate over a dozen vampires.

How could I tell her? I was a monster but she already knew that, at least she thought she did. The true extent of my crimes against this world was hidden, and that was how I wanted it. I opened my arms to her knowing I would have to relive a past I never really broke free of. I struggled with it as she lay with her head on my chest and wrapped her arm around my neck.

"Are you still angry?" I asked.

She looked up at me confused. "What makes you think that?" she asked. "I wasn't mad."

"You said you were going to bring me a blood but then you didn't," I continued.

"I didn't think you needed another." She kissed me and looked shame-faced. "She already brought you one."

By the slight inflection on the first pronoun and the returning tension to her shoulders, I realized what was bothering her. She was jealous. It was incredibly ridiculous but yet so adorable.

"I'm sorry sweetheart, I'll go get it." Then she began pulling away from the bed.

I tightened the hold I had on her. I didn't want her to go anywhere. "I don't need it. I wanted it." I told her. "I want you to feed me."

She nodded. The silence continued. I could almost see the questions churning through her mind but she voiced none of them.

"Aren't you going to ask?" I finally wondered out loud.

She made a noise of refusal. "If want me to know you'd tell me and if you don't I don't want to force you to have to lie."

"I wouldn't," I told her. "I don't lie to you but there are some things I don't say because I don't want you to be afraid."

She snorted derisively. "I'm not scared of you," she said confidently. "You won't hurt me."

"No love, I would never." I affirmed kissing her head. That's what made me decide. "Do you know of the bonds between a vampire and their maker?" I asked her.

"It's eternal and the maker can feel emotions of their vampire child and where they are," she said sitting up. "Like you and Pam."

I shook my head. I wish. "Your maker owns you, mind, body, and soul. If they chose to abuse you, you would have no choice."

"Not like you and Pam," she whispered.

"Pam is my baby," I said with a smile. "Everything I never had, I found in her. England was an unforgiving place for decades after this country's independence. It was where I met her. She was ten. She broke into the house where I lived. Being a vampire I had no food for her to steal. Being an orphan, she assumed it was because I couldn't afford any. She broke in the next day to leave me bread. She's been with me ever since."

"That's really sweet," she said with a serene smile but then her face clouded. "Yours wasn't like that," she deduced.

"Not in the least." I pulled her back against me for comfort as I revisited hell.

I told her about the life I had when I was human, and how Ocella had been a collector of rarities and had the talent to seek them out. I'd always had a draw towards lightning. I found it pleasant while so many others of time had shunned it. It had been my damnation. I speared her the details of how my talent was honed into a weapon but she'd guessed.

"Two weeks after he turned me he brought me back to my village," I said. "It was what he had done to us all. It was his way to break our ties to this world so we would only have him. He ordered me kill them all."

Ocella had forced me to drown all the children, rape their mothers, and set their fathers on fire. They had all begged me by name, they all knew my face, and they had all died by hands. My own children he forced me drink dry.

"Don't cry," I said wiping Sookie's tears. "It is done and your tears will do nothing but make me sad."

There had been no pain as I told her about the worse of what eternity had showed me. If I felt anything it was apprehension that she would be repulsed. She wasn't. She was crying for me. Making her cry for any reason other than joy was not something I ever wanted to do again.

She nodded and swallowed her tears as best as she could. "That's why Illeta…" her voice trailed off.

"Ni siquiera el diablo haría esto," I said, recalling my sister's words. "It means, 'Not even the devil would do this. Her husband had died before she gave birth to their son. He had been a toddler when Ocella had turned her. She said he smiled at her and called her by name as she drowned him. She told me that he never looked afraid. The look in his eyes had one of confusion. It wasn't her fault but she always believed there was a special in hell for her, for not even the devil would murder his own son. It wasn't until recently that she began to forgive herself. She found peace and I think she didn't want to risk ever parting with it."

"How did you get away?" she asked. "What happened to the others?"

"My maker's last acquisition was to be his crowning jewel," I told her. "She was psychic and with her he would have been unstoppable but she saw him coming. She killed him to save her family but she died in the process." I thought I would never forget her face but I had. She was forever the breaker of shackles.

"When he was gone, the bond that had been wound so tightly snapped. There were twelve of us. Illeta, Ezra, Asha, and I were the youngest so his hold over us wasn't as deep and the madness in his mind hadn't fully infected us. The others were not as fortunate. The instant the bond broke, so did their minds. They'd been tied to him for too long there was nothing left of who'd they'd been. They were killing machines with no 'off' switch, so the four of us had to put them down because no one else in this world could. Asha and Ezra died in the fight and then it was just Leta and me."

"But it's only you now," she murmured, wrapping her arm around my neck.

I nodded. "It's just me."


	29. Chapter 29

**Sookie**

**Chapter Twenty-Nine**

"That's what the guards are for," I asked Eric. "They keep the world away."

He nodded. "Batanya is my last safeguard," he said. I tried hard not to make a face but I lost. "The tattoo on her neck tells her when I'm losing control. She's the only one that get close enough fast enough to—"

"Kill you," I finished for him.

"I would rather die than be what he made me to be," he concluded with a shrug.

Even feigning emotion required an openness I told myself I needed to get the job done. It was the only way to make him believe I cared. I told myself that I knew the boundaries, but after his tale they started to blur. I sat staring at Eric unable to fathom any of what he had survived. Feeling pity for the horror of his past clouded my motives.

There was always a reason for every touch, every kiss, and for every intimate act. It was because he was expecting me to, not because I wanted to. It was how I got to see more of him. I got an uncensored view of the Viking who preferred jeans and t-shirts to the suit he was always forced to wear, the mogul that was a _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ lover and had a man crush on Dracula.

Soon I was able to differentiate between the smile he showed the rest of the world and the one that only I seemed to bring about. The calculation behind each and every action began to fade. I didn't have to think about it. I simply thought it was because I was getting good at the lie I lived but I cried for him just now and it had been real. It had been authentic.

I wasn't a monster I supposed. Those tears had been real because no one person should ever have to suffer so. When you looked at someone as physically imposing as my husband, when you saw his wealth and his power, you could never see him as the victim he had been. He had been a one though, he had been a victim of the worse sort and had been forced to victimize and terrorize, starting with those he loved. He had lived and survived when eleven others hadn't, not even Illeta. She had gotten free but the scars ran too deep for time to heal. I never wanted to know what it felt like to be in so much pain that death was your only release.

Slowly Eric wiggled his toes, testing their strength. Then he rolled to the side of the bed and put weight on his leg. I moved automatically to help, then half way up I stalled. He was clearly healed so I dropped my hands, but the good wife I was pretending to be should get up. I was acting skittish as the confusion in my head continued to cloud my mind.

"Come," he said throwing his arm around me. "It's late, you should sleep."

"Does your side hurt?" I asked.

He shook his head knowing full well what was coming. I elbowed him and he made no move to dodge. He just laughed. I rolled my eyes, he could at least pretend I hurt him. I probably gave myself a bruise for no good reason. Instead of heading upstairs towards to our—damn, it was his room. It was his room. Maybe I should go to bed. I needed to get it together.

Eric detoured to the second floor and led the way to his office. The setup of all his computer monitors was something out of the Starship Enterprise. There were four screens mounted on the wall, above that there was an electronic strip that was always flashing market numbers. Seriously, Captain Kirk might be jealous.

"Since you obviously don't want to sleep we should do this tonight," he said opening the door. "Step into my office."

That was his, 'I'm going to do something extremely over the top and highhanded' voice. Like when he had paid all the stores in Manhattan mall to stay open after hours so I could buy a sweater. In those instances it didn't make sense putting him in the doghouse. He had already moved himself in and was plotting his way out.

"I'm not going to like this," I muttered stepping into the room.

He didn't answer, which was answer enough. "A lot of what I do for work seems intricate but it isn't," he said, typing away. Even in his sweats and tank top the businessman was clearly visible. "All you will ever need to know is B.P.R.T."

Not as bad as I feared, not great but so far so good. "I don't know what that means but I'm sure you're going to tell me no matter how badly I don't want to know." If I didn't sound enthusiastic it was because I wasn't.

He smiled and held his arm open for me and I went to take a seat in his lap. "This is important," he said wrapping his arms around my waist. He rested his chin on my shoulder. "Banking," he pointed to the first screen then he followed all the others in a counterclockwise motion. "Pharmaceuticals, real estate and transportation." Each screen came to life and they were all running several different sequences that was directed at their market. It was just a guess because I couldn't follow any of it.

"I have rewritten my estate."

I stiffened in his arms but if he noticed he didn't show it.

"In the event of my final death Pam will receive half my net worth as well as all the bank and transportation holdings. You will receive the other half in addition to the real estate and pharmaceuticals shares. Since the red tape around properly allocating a fortune that big could take years, there is a policy that is effective immediately after I go missing. This will maintain your standard of living while you wait for everything else."

I stood up and faced him with my hands on my hips. There were so many things running through my head. None of them were good. I. Was. Pissed. I wanted to curse him up one side of the street and down the other. I don't know how many times I had to tell him that I didn't care about money.

After a few seconds of me just fuming and grinding my teeth and him calmly watching, he spoke, "You are angry with me."

"Yes," I ground out. "Very."

"I wish you wouldn't be," and he leveled me with a look that was pleading, angelic and unapologetic. So not fair that he could make that blend look so good. "I'm not sorry."

Then I had to laugh. "I know." I sat down on the desk facing him. "I'm not happy that you did this. I'm going to yell at you. Just not right at this moment," I said, kissing the corner of his lips. "You've had a hard night and I don't want to fight," I admitted.

Of all the reasons he had to be suspicious of me, giving him an easy pass made his eyes go wide. He still wanted to drink from me and I still wanted him to, very much so. I was at the door of the study and he was still seated in his chair with a dumbfounded look on his face.

"Oh stop it!" I huffed. "It's not that unbelievable."

He rolled his eyes and came over to me. We talked as we headed down the hall. It was like none of the ugliness of the night had happened. Our conversation wasn't about the attack or the attackers or what would be done. It wasn't about his dark past that he had shared with me. We talked about the show we had seen and what we could catch on television this time of night besides infomercials.

Instead of taking the corridor that would lead upstairs, Eric pulled me left. I'd wandered through this house enough while in search of his day chamber to know there was nothing in that direction but the music room and library.

"Stay the day with me," he said, pushing on the wall.

The wooden panel sprang open to reveal a staircase. No guards, it was just us. This is the chance I'd been waiting almost a year for. I nodded and he squeezed my hand as we descended into the secret pathway. I wasn't sure what I was expecting his day chamber to look like. It certainly was light tight but there was no coffin. There was nothing ostentatious or ornate about the room. It looked comfortable. The walls were bright blue and the bed wasn't king sized. It was probably the most normal looking bedroom in the whole house.

I watched the room and Eric watched me. "I want you," he said pulling off his shirt.

"Are you sure you can?" I looked at him. Where there had been gaping and bleeding wounds an hour ago there was now just smooth pale skin. "Maybe you should drink first," I offered.

An austere smile curved his lips but I didn't think it reached his eyes. He flitted in front of me and held my face in his hands. "I told you, I don't need to. I want to." Then he kissed me.

There was an air of desperation to the way he touched me. Not that he was frenzied but as if the world was ending and getting inside me was something he absolutely had to do. When he finally did, God! It was always toe curling and mind blowing. This time was different…it felt different. The flames of passion were there but they weren't consuming. I didn't feel out of my mind with desire, my body wasn't burning and raging. There was no fever in my blood. I wasn't chasing a release or getting them in dangerously large proportions.

He just felt good, he was making me feel good all over. Our lips were connected, our fingers interlocked. Our bodies were in perfect sync. There was no hurry to the way we moved. I arched my back and wiggled my hips to get him to lose control so I could shake this feeling. He obliged as he always did, but it didn't go away. He surged forward, burying himself deep inside me, he was hitting that spot that only he had discovered and claimed.

Eric whispered sweet words into my ear as he continued pushing inside me as deep as my body would allow. The feel of his chest rubbing against mine was titillating, the weight of his body and the sounds of flesh slapping flesh was all part of the emotion. They were the sensual beats and notes in the ballad to our passions.

I was feeling something beyond the physical I realized, dismayed. I was feeling…something for him. I couldn't bear it anymore. It had to stop. I bared my neck for him to bite and when he sank his fangs in, we came in one insane harmonized blinding moment that transcended anything I'd ever experienced.

Afterward we lay in tangled mass of limbs. He pulled me into his favorite post coital position, with me partially laying on top of him, my head on his chest, my thigh thrown over his, and his fingers in my hair.

"We have a wedding anniversary coming soon," he murmured as if to himself.

I suppose we did. It was two months from now, in August but I don't think he would be here to see it.

**~ooooo~**

I faded to sleep last night and I never saw the sun pull Eric under. When I woke I knew he was out. This was the first time and I realized just how heavy he was. It felt like I was drowning in Viking. He was literally dead weight, with his thighs and arm around me and his head above mine. I heaved and pushed and got free. I was awake and my vampire nemesis was dead for the day. I found the first weapon I could but once I did that I couldn't move.

_'Do it,' _I told myself. _'You gave this man your body so you could get here. You had sex with him even though you hated him. You have to.' _I had to.

I looked down at Eric and I tried to drag up those old feelings. For close a year I'd lived my life in a way that ensured that I would never forget all the pain he caused me and the hate I felt. Those feelings were there. I hadn't forgotten but I couldn't make them mean as much now as they had before.

My husband was still lying on his stomach, with his hand thrown over my side of the bed. I felt like he thought he was still holding me close. I wasn't in bed. I was above him, seconds from ending him. It was perfect. His back was to me. I wouldn't have to look at his face and he wouldn't suffer. I didn't want him to suffer and I absolutely couldn't look at his face. It would obscure my goal. I couldn't risk showing the weakness from last night. I took a step forward and my hands shook. I took another and I broke into a sweat. It wasn't fear, it was dread.

The lie I'd forced myself to live had become my reality. I knew what I had to do and remembered why I had to do it. What Eric had done was wrong but this…what I was contemplating seemed so much worse. No. I wouldn't be stealing his future, he'd stolen mine. He wasn't afraid of dying. He wasn't a person. He was cold and heartless. 'But he wasn't always.' A voice in my head said.

Once he had been a victimized in the worst sort of way. He would rather meet his end than hurt people. But he had hurt me knowing what it was like to watch the person you love suffer. He had the power to free me from this marriage before it began but he hadn't. He could have let me have Quinn but he didn't. Instead he tortured us both. He was a monster.

'_So do it,'_ I told myself. _'Do it, prove you're right, and end him. You might never get this chance again. End him."_

Eric had taken from me, not just my first love but all the familiar things I'd ever known. All this he did without a single thought or consideration because he wanted to win a popularity contest. But he had given as well as taken. It didn't make him right, or even the scales but…I closed my eyes as my confusion raged.

I walked the rest of the way to the bed and loomed over him. His hair was a blonde curtain that hid his face. I wanted to brush it aside and stroke his face. I wanted to crawl back in bed so his fingers would stop searching for me. On the left of me I caught a flicker of movement. Darkness converged. It shifted and morphed and then I saw them take form.

Cypher and Lynx were here. And instead of fear I felt relieved. The horrible physical reactions dissipated. They might protect me against everyone else but they worked for Eric. And he would never give me guards that could be used against him. Cypher and Lynx would stop me, at least that was why I thought they'd come. I wasn't so sure anymore, these two looked like they were ready to aid and abet in his assassination.

I mean I was hanging over him with a number two pencil in hand. It was pretty damning. They should be alerting Batanya or at the very least confiscating the murder weapon. Yet they didn't even spare Eric a look. It was as if they didn't see him. They looked like they were bracing for something but I was the only threat in the room. And they were ignoring that fact.

"Aren't you going to do something?" I asked after a moment of awkwardness.

They both looked at me and their faces creased into identical masks of confusion. They weren't the only ones. I didn't get it.

Cypher spoke, "Ashai command shadow, shadow not command Ashai."

"What called you?" I asked because clearly it wasn't me threatening Eric.

"Britlingen Batanya tie her life to vampire Eric." Lynx said pointing to the door. He was the spiritual bodyguard. He saw threats that Cypher didn't.

"How did she tie her shadow to his?" I spat.

"It her mark," he said.

His shadow moved to tap the side of his neck but the physical limb remained by his side. It used to be super eerie but like all the weird things in my life I was very well used to it.

"She keep vampire Eric safe and if he not, she curse her body to die and her soul to take who send him beyond shadow. I not let her," he concluded pointing to the pencil in my hand.

I now understood the necessity of the female daemon, why she had pulled him away from our arguments, why her neck always stung. I don't think even Eric knew this. I was jealous and angry. Who did she think she was tying her life to my husband's? Jealous as I was, I was doubly confused because I was glad that he had someone like that watching his back.

If I ended him she would die but her soul would come for me. Lynx could protect me. I could get away with it. I would survive this and like Eric had told me so long ago I would be a rich woman. I didn't care about the wealth but I would spend the rest of my life as a target. With money I could buy protection.

Eric had taken out the policy. I would be set the rest of my days. So why couldn't I move? It was because I couldn't. I couldn't hurt him. He was right when he had consoled me over my brother's neglect. Being angry with someone didn't mean you didn't or couldn't love them. It just meant that you were too hurt by what they had done to see it.

I wondered if Eric loved me when he hand found out my affair with Quinn. For the first time since it all happened I was forced to look at it from a different point of view. I wondered what had fueled the action. I wondered if Eric had lashed out in pain instead of cruelty. Was it simply the fact that I'd violated the wedding documents? Or could he have cared about me even then?

If Eric he had cared, even a little, it would have hurt. Finding out that his wife was with another man had to sting, no matter how cold I thought him to be. He was male and was proud. If I'd hurt him then I would have to take responsibility for cheating, admittedly it wasn't something I'd ever done. My conscience had been assuaged with the assumption that he wouldn't care.

I let my mind go back to that night. It wasn't something I allowed myself think about often, because I knew I would fall apart. The pain would come back and I wouldn't have been able to stay the course. And yet I did go back and the pain wasn't crippling. I allowed myself to think of Quinn. I would never forget him no matter how deeply I'd buried the daily ache of missing him.

At first I'd spent many nights forcing myself not to cry over him. I'd pined so grievously, wondering if Quinn was hurting as badly for me as I was for him. I'd been afraid that if ever I got free of Eric, he wouldn't want me. I'd been afraid that he was angry with me or that he hated me and that he had moved on. That thought had hurt the most then, but now it was different.

I still loved him and more than anything, I was sorry I hadn't left him alone. I was sorry he had gotten hurt because of me. You never forget your first and now when I thought of him it was just me wishing he was happy.

I wanted to hate Eric and it would have been easy if I didn't know now what I didn't then. It would have been easy if I didn't know that the thought of another man touching me made him insane. It would have been easy to be angry if I didn't know that cheating had been wrong. It would have been easy to be angry if I didn't believe that he loved me.

"He loves me," I said, awed by the truth of it.

I'd heard him say it so many times but I'd been so caught up in my lies that I never really believed it. I always told myself that it wasn't real, that nothing I felt while with him was genuine. It had all just been a means to an end. To actually absorb that fact was daunting. This millennium old mega powerful vampire loved me. I'd miscalculated entirely. I'd overestimated my ability to hate and underestimated his ability to love.

"If I asked you to send him beyond shadow," I said looking at Cypher. "Could you?"

He nodded and somehow implied the, Duh. "I am your shadow."

All I could do was smile like a loon. It was all the confirmation I needed. Vampires, for all the calm cool air they put on, were intense in emotion. Eric didn't give them to me as spies. He gave me Shadow Wraiths way back when because he cared. He gave them to me knowing I could use them to hurt him. If there was anything I knew; he wanted to keep me safe and happy, precisely in that order.

Eric was overbearing and overprotective and extremely highhanded at times but he did those things out of love not a desire to control. He did them because not having me with him was worse than having me pissed at him for buying out the mall.

"I don't want him beyond shadow," I said handing Cypher the pencil. "I want you to stop anyone that tries."

They nodded and left. I crawled back into bed with my husband.


	30. Chapter 30

**Eric**

**Chapter Thirty**

Reflexively my grip tightened around my wife and I fully absorbed the heat and weight of her beside me. In a crowded room I could pinpoint her scent. Blind, I would still know her face. I never understood why Pam asked to be woken early before this moment. It was because despite the sun, you didn't want to wait another minute for what you lived for. For Pam it was being a lecher, for me it was Sookie.

"Hi sweetheart," she said turning to face me. "You want a blood?" she asked stroking my cheek.

"I want you," I said.

"No," she said pulling back. "You need a drink and I know I don't supply you with nearly enough. I'll go get you a blood. Pam says adding a shot of red wine makes it taste better."

I rolled my eyes at her concern and the fact that Pam would forever be a pain in my ass. "It doesn't make it better," I corrected, not letting her go. "It makes me drunk off my ass." which of course was the only reason my child shared that bit of information. She laughed long and hard. It was such an adorable sound that I couldn't help but smile. Making her happy did that to me.

"I should probably stop listening to her huh?"

"Absolutely," I agreed. "There is nothing she finds more amusing rattling my cage."

"I guess we have that in common," she said flashing me a vixen-like smirk. It made me want her all the more.

I rolled and pinned her under me. With my knees I nudged her legs apart. She didn't resist. "Say yes," I begged, rubbing the proof of my desire between her legs. She bit her lip and I knew I was tempting her. "Say yes to me, I'm hurting." It was the truth. I'd been hard for her the instant I woke to her beside me. It wasn't going away.

She cupped my face. "Tell me you love me," she said tracing my lips with her thumb.

I stopped and looked at her unsure as to why she needed to reassurance but I gave it to her anyway. "I love you," I replied, kissing her palm. "I love you always."

She smiled sweetly. "I love you too."

It was like everything I never dared to hope for because I knew it would never be mine. All the things I never thought she could give me, I had it there and then, not just her body but a place in her heart. It was a feeling of victory, not of conquest but the feeling that I'd won something of immeasurable value. In truth I had. I'd won the one thing I could never buy. It had taken time and patience. Doubt had plagued me every time I told her I loved her and she remained silent but no more. She loved me. I saw the truth of her words in her eyes. Suddenly, I was overtaken by an irresistible urge to possess her.

"Tell me again," I growled. "Tell me you love me,"

I felt her body heat and her desire flare. Thankfully I was already naked but I didn't have the self-control to remove them, so I ripped them off. The only thing I was thinking was how quickly I could get the both of us naked. I was throbbing and erect to the point of pain and needed to be inside her. I didn't have it in me for foreplay or teasing and tasting.

She gasped in shock as her clothes were torn away but she didn't shirk away. There was no fear no matter what state I was in, she knew she was safe. She surrendered to me, parting her legs and cradling my hips, holding me closer as if she was loathe to let me go.

"I love you, Eric." She repeated. Her eyes were on me; smoldering, anticipating, pleading.

Delving into her sheath provided a feeling of bliss so complete it was almost painful. I gave her more deep strokes. I loved how I well I'd come to know her body. When she wanted me to add a little more pressure or handle her rougher, she would try to squirm away. When she was fighting the pleasure of her body she would bite her lower lip and beg me for a reprieve though we both knew she didn't want it, not really. I loved to watch her lose her fucking mind.

The grip she had on the sheets was firm but unlike every other time when she had screamed for me, this time she let me hear it. She begged me not to stop. My name, mixed with urgent pleas, escaped her lips. She told me she belonged to me, she told me she loved me. Every single word of her surrender drove me crazy. I pushed on her back to arch her the way I wanted then I gave her all that I had been holding back. Her legs shook so badly she struggled to stay in position.

Suddenly she pulled away and all but pounced on me. She was sliding her tight wet pussy down on my length. She brought my hands to cup her breasts and placed hers over mine. She threw her head back and her mane of long blonde hair almost brushed my knees as she utterly let herself go. Her fingers were in my hair and her lips teased my ear in a sinful caress. Her confidence and dominance as she rode me thoroughly was enough to have me losing control. She was letting me know I belonged to her and I didn't fight it. I knew I did. I have, for so very long now.

"I can't take anymore," I groaned. I didn't know if I'd given her hers but I couldn't hold back anymore. The pressure from not coming was too much. "I have to..."

She let her body lean forward and sought out my lips without breaking her rhythm. I wrapped my arms around her and clung on helplessly. She smelled so good. Just a trace of it even when she wasn't around was enough to get my blood boiling but this close, with my face buried in the crook of her neck, in her hair, was exhilarating. When we made love and her sweat and arousal mixed with my scent it became intoxicating.

"I love it when you come inside me," she whispered.

I was in her so deep. I felt her body tense as her pleasure built. In concert with her desperate command it was too much. I made a noise from deep inside my chest like someone who was being thoroughly worked over, and in fact, I was. It was a noise of passion, pleasure, and sweet pain. I found my release and it was utterly sublime.

"Lover," I murmured.

"Hmm," she hummed.

"You need to tell me you love me every day."

She laughed so hard she did that little snort thing. "You're a dirty old man."

I grinned wickedly and made no move to deny the accusation. She threw a pillow at me for my lecherous behavior, which only made me laugh.

"I see where your kid gets it from," she commented getting out of bed.

There wasn't a single shred of fabric that was left intact but the bed sheets and that was what we wore up to our bedroom. Hand in hand we moved through the house in nothing but sheets.

"Speaking of our anniversary," my wife commented as she ate. "I have some requests,"

There was nothing that made me happier than lavishing her. Having her request it of me was a first and I had to admit it pleased me.

It was as if she knew what I was thinking. "Hold your horses," she said waving her fork at me.

I sighed I should have known better. "You don't want me to get you anything," I guessed.

"Nope," she replied, "But you leave the planning to me, deal?"

As if I could tell her no. "If you insist,"

"I do," she blew me a kiss, gathered her plate and my bottle of blood and left.

**~ooooo~ **

As I knew she would, Sophie-Anne had given my case priority. She uncovered evidence leading to my assailants in only half the time I'd allowed her. It was amazing what people could do with the proper motivation. Sophie-Anne was married to Peter Threadgill, the vampire king of Arkansas. With me moving into her area she was growing financially stronger than he was, tipping the balance of power.

The regents of this country thought it was only a matter of time until I dethroned Sophie-Anne. I was sure she thought so too, but I paid my taxes and I was in the spotlight so she deemed me worth the risk. It was going on two years and I never so much as spoke out of turn and I minded my manners and followed her laws. Even after I set the clock against her to find my attacker, I still showed her due respect in the open.

Threadgill thought sending baby mercenary wannabes to attack me in my backyard was a smart thing do with his limited resources. Actually it wasn't that stupid. There was no way he would have succeeded in ending me no matter who he sent but that hadn't been his aim. He wanted to turn me against Sophie-Anne because their marriage documents protected her from an open attack. Just when I'd forgotten how seedy the game of thrones could be, I got a blunt reminder.

"I suppose you will not be bringing him before the Pythoness," said the Queen. She sounded more than pleased and a little hopeful at the prospect of becoming a widow.

"No I am sure we can reach an agreement," I said vaguely. "Bobby," I called. "Get me one of Peter's people."

I drummed my fingers and waited as the call connected. "This is Eric," I said blandly. "Put Peter on the phone, now."

"You do not command me," he growled in greeting.

I rolled my eyes. I didn't command him but he was definitely on the phone as I told him to be. "Tomorrow, a vampire by the name of Thalia will knock on your door, she will ask you to be her friend and you will agree. For being on the receiving end of her undivided attention you will pay her double what you paid your assassins. If you do not comply I will be forced to come looking for you." Then I hung up.

Thalia wouldn't kill him. In the event that Sophie-Anne was framing him I wouldn't give her that satisfaction. Ending Threadgill would also bring me to the attention of the Pythoness and I didn't want that, no matter how right I was. My solution would punish Peter, reminding him and everyone else to leave me out of their petty games.

"Thank you Sheriff, for your devotion to duty," I told Sophie-Anne with a deep nod of my head.

I didn't move until she dismissed me. I wasn't above playing her game as long as she adhered to the rules. The minute I left the royal estate I forgot about all the scheming and conniving that went with it. In the main courtyard, my wife was behind the wheel of a sports car I'd bought for her as a wedding present. My guards took the normal convoy of vehicles and headed home. Tonight was date night.

"You so owe me for this detour," Sookie huffed as I slid in beside her.

"I'm willing to pay in any way you deem fit," I said looking her over. She was delectable.

Her dress was short satin number the color of sea foam. The neck was low and offered a tantalizing view of her cleavage from my angle. Her hair was pulled away in a neat chignon displaying the delicate arch of her neck. Around said neck sat a sapphire and diamond necklace that matched the color and sparkle of her eyes. I'd had it made just for her.

She smiled as we pulled away. "I'll remember that. So how'd it go?"

"Fine," I replied. "Though I wished you'd come with. You are my wife, not some nonentity."

She took my hand. "So long as I know I'm important to you, I could care less what anyone else thinks. Plus André creeps me out and Sophie-Anne wants to jump your bones." I laughed and she stuck her tongue out at me. I loved her possessive streak, though she would emphatically deny she had one.

There was good, better, and then there was the absolute best. That is what life was for me as of late. Even with the loss of Illeta things haven't been this good and I haven't been this happy since meeting Pam. Hearing my wife tell me she loved me made the time I spent waiting so very worth it. I'd been right. She'd just needed time and patience.

To Batanya's dismay I was now resting in the master bedroom during the day instead of my day chamber. I woke to the scent and feel of my wife. Some nights the passion between us unfurled, consuming more than our bodies. I had everything I wanted since I realized I loved her. It didn't make her happier about me splurging on her but she told me she loved me anyway no matter how much I irritated her.

It has been a long time since I found myself actually looking forward to a particular day but I was looking forward to our wedding anniversary. My excitement built when she began acting suspiciously. When Pam showed up at the house I knew they were up to something and despite my best efforts of persuasion, I couldn't get her to tell me what. Two days before the date Sookie kicked me out of the house under pain of grave bodily harm if I should return before I was summoned.

I knocked on the front door exactly at eight the evening of our wedding anniversary. Trying to cheat was something I'd promised myself I wouldn't do because I knew Sookie was going through a lot of trouble to surprise me. I would still act surprised, I reasoned. From my place on the steps, I was trying to catch scents and sounds. Other than the scent of slow burning wood and several human heartbeats, I didn't get much.

"Cut that out," Sookie said opening the door.

My wife was in a skimpy bikini with sheer red sarong around her waist. Her body was adorned in gold jewelry including frilly gold anklets and a thin body chain. I stared, wondering how I could talk her into giving me a quick taste before the evening actually began. If all that wasn't enough, there was a blindfold in her hand.

I arched a brow. "This evening is off to an interesting start," I said with a grin.

She snorted. "This is part one. I might save the blindfold for part three."

I chuckled and crossed the threshold to kiss her. "I've missed you," I murmured.

"Nice try," she said slipping deftly from my hold. "Turn around."

I obeyed and she covered my eyes and led me through the house.

"Time and place," she said opening the back doors that leg into the garden. "Bulgaria before the Ottoman empire."

I'd told her that story and many others but Pam must have told her this was my favorite. I couldn't see but the scent alone thrust me back in time. The unique blend of the flowers and sand that populated the country greeted me. The smell of sandalwood, candles, and jasmine scented lamp oil brought back memories of sailing the Black Sea so many centuries ago.

Sookie untied the blindfold and it was eerie. It was better than what my memories could conjure. In the distance a red and gold tent stood with servants to attend it. They were in the traditional garb of the time. The singers sang, drummers drummed, and the dancers danced around the roaring flame. To the side was a bed of pillows meant for us to sit comfortably and watch.

My wife looked at me trying to gauge my reaction but I was so thoroughly awed that I couldn't say a single word. It made her nervous.

"You don't like it," she said. "That's okay. It was dumb…you might not have wanted to go back. I'm sorry." She took my hand and began trying to pull me back inside. There was no look of hurt or disappointment that her effort might have gone to waste. In her eyes I just saw worry that I was unhappy. Wrong, she was very wrong. "We'll go out and do something else, anything else you want."

"Anything I want?" I questioned.

She nodded. "Anything."

"I want to stay right here until the shock wears off. Then I'm taking you for a swim. We'll watch the dancers and at some point we'll put that blindfold to use once more."

She smiled. "That sounds like a plan."

* * *

**A/N: If you are waiting for the shoe to drop...it will. Dum...dum...dummm...**


	31. Chapter 31

**A/N: A few words of warning, this chapter is super long also recall when I said, 'Be careful what you wish for?' Yeah...I meant that. The Quinn reveal is below and it aien't pretty and it has a snow ball effect. It end's on a bleak note. Well, without further ado, enjoy!**

* * *

**Sookie**

**Chapter Thirty-One**

Eric was still dead for the day beside me. I left him in the morning but often made it back so he would wake up to me. I couldn't help touching him. His hair was mussed in a rugged kind of way. My fingers traced his lips, down the column of his neck, and I toyed with the trinket around his neck. It had been my anniversary present to him.

I'd traveled all over the place to enhance the setting just so at the house that night. This was how the small ornament caught my eye. It was from an antique store off the coast of Romania and spoke of a different place and time. It reminded me of a Viking, his adventures, conquests, but also his loss. It was nothing but a delicately carved dragon with its' wings folded as if asleep, but his eyes saw everything.

Admittedly, I wasn't sure he'd want to be reminded of that place and time but he had loved it. It opened a gate way. Lately he'd been talking more and more about his past, and we were both learning not all one thousand years were marred by suffering and pain. It was helping him to heal.

"Hello, wife of mine," Eric murmured.

"Hi, baby," I greeted, crawling and laying partially over him.

We were quiet for a few minutes as his head cleared. He was still groggy because it was barely dusk, but he just wanted a few minutes of us to start his day. He'd loved me for so long, and I'd been waiting to take advantage of it in order to hurt him. Lately there were times when the guilt and shame came to the surface and I felt horrible. It was like when I used to act out in the beginning of our marriage, and then I didn't think I could ever earn his approval. Now I knew I didn't deserve him. Loving him back now didn't make that knowledge go away.

"What's wrong?" Eric asked, looking down at me. His eyes were at half-mast, making those pale blue orbs look tempting, but they were definitely probing.

"Fashion week with Pam," I lied, rolling out of bed.

He chuckled. "At least I have your company this year."

The guilt only surged higher as he so easily swallowed the lie. It wasn't just when I looked at Eric that those feelings arose. It was worse with Pam. I'd smiled in her face while plotting to stab him in the back. When he had left her alone in California to grieve alone, I was relieved that I wouldn't have to contend with him coddling her. It made me feel secure in my place with him. It was beyond shameful and I'd been beyond wrong.

Eric knew his baby. He let her be, knowing it what she needed and she joined the world when she was ready. There'd been no need to hash it out. He just answered his phone one evening over dinner, and by the smile on his face I just knew who he'd been speaking to. Even now, as she enthralled buyers and designers, Eric watched her with quiet admiration and pride.

I could make Pam a big sister someday. That thought brought me up short. It was something I told myself would never happen with Eric. I never wanted to have something as precious as a child to tie me to him. Yet, as my twenty-seventh birthday drew closer and closer; I now looked forward to that possibility.

"Tired?" Eric asked, squeezing my hand.

"No," I replied honestly, "I'm just thinking."

"What about?" he wondered.

His tone was casual, but I didn't miss the glimpse he took over everything in the area. I rolled my eyes. He was wondering if there was something I wanted and wasn't telling him about. All I had to do was look at something for too long and he was having my name inscribed on it. Lord help the store if they didn't have it! No vendor was allowed to sell out of anything his wife wanted.

"Actually I was thinking about babies," I replied innocently.

The look on his face was so heartrendingly stunned. I kissed him, then walked away to join Rebecca. I found that I liked Rebecca. We had a lot in common, outside of coming from small towns. She was one of the very few people who understood what it was like to be with a vampire who was as immersed in the human public eye as well as that of the supernatural. The pair of us found a quiet corner to talk boys. We compared stories about the overprotectiveness of our husbands and made fun of the fact that our ancient vampires were cuddle bunnies.

While we shared one laugh and ridiculous story after another I realized something: when I had gone out with Rebecca along with Illeta and Pam, I had been remote. I didn't want the outing to mean anything; I hadn't wanted it to effect me. I realized I'd been cheating myself. Tonight I left New York feeling as if I'd made a friend.

The next evening found me in California. It was hell from day one. I saw Eric's back more than anything. He wouldn't say so, but it was hard on him. Illeta had many assets she had left to him. He wanted so badly to maintain things the way his sister had left them and to take care of her staff the way she had. He'd been trying to manage them remotely but things were getting critical. It was that much more difficult because Illeta's second in command, Marcus, had left the state shortly after her passing.

Every life Illeta had touched, she'd made it better and they were all still mourning. I, too, found I was still sad that Illeta was gone. The handful of times I'd met her she'd made an effort, even when Eric hadn't. Still, I never gave her a chance because of her close association with him. Again, I realized I'd cheated myself out of knowing a great person. I wondered what else I'd missed while chasing revenge.

Five days of watching him be pulled in ten different directions, and I simply couldn't stand it anymore. I had no idea how he did it and remained calm or sane. "I'm going to head home," I told him. "Meet me when you can,"

Eric looked at me with those piercing blue eyes and for once, I felt like he was getting it wrong. I wasn't leaving because he couldn't find time for me while here. I was leaving because I knew he felt bad that I was here and he was preoccupied. Also, being in Illeta's house in LA, I felt like I was intruding on the closeness of all the people who knew her, loved her, and were still mourning her. I hadn't known her well enough.

"No, baby," I said, going over and wrapping my arms around him. "I'm not leaving because you're crazy busy. I'm leaving because this is hard enough for you and trying to rush back to me is making it harder."

"Coming home to my wife is no hardship," he murmured resting his chin on my head, "At least not three weeks out of the month."

I punched him and he laughed. "I don't like you racing the sun home," I told him more seriously. "It doesn't make me feel good that you do it for me."

He pulled away and held my face in his hands. "I would do anything for you."

"I know, sweetheart, just don't do that."

I helped him get undressed knowing he just liked the feel of my hands on him. Then I lay with him until the sun pulled him under. Shortly after, I was being escorted to the airport by Cypher and Lynx. At the last minute, I decided to go Monroe and see my brother instead of New Orleans, to an empty house. While I had still been sending Jason money, I hadn't called him since the incident at the vampire bar though he'd been calling me plenty.

I was learning something about holding grudges and why my Gran had always been against them. When people said nasty things about her because my inability to control my telepathy had freaked them out, she always let it roll off her back.

"Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die," she'd say to me.

Then we'd have iced tea or maybe bake a pie together. She, too, was someone else I hadn't forgiven. I'd been angry that she had been unfaithful to her husband. I was angry that she knew why I'd been a freak my whole life. Mostly I'd been angry that Jason had been endangered for her indiscretions and I, ultimately, had to pay for them. I'd blamed her. It was why her letter was still unopened, and tucked in a shoe box. I'd been angry, but I wasn't angry anymore.

The first thing on my To-Do List when I got home to New Orleans would be to read it. I would also visit her grave. I had gone by to bring fresh flowers, but I hadn't talked to her as I used to in so long. Prior to marriage I had nothing to tell her about except the usual happenings in a town she'd lived and died in.

Now when I went to her grave I would have countless stories about all the places I'd been and all things I'd seen. I had a whole new world, a whole new life, and a husband she might have liked if she'd met. Forgiving my grandmother and going to see my ungrateful jerk of a brother made me feel lighter in spirit.

Jason was making an effort when I visited him. He was off V and he even tried to cook dinner. We both agreed it was horrible so we went to Merlotte's like we used to. Sam was even able to stop by for a quick chat. It was nice. Unlike the last time I was with my best friend in my home town, nothing marred it. Unfortunately that didn't last when I went back to my little farmhouse. I'd gone home, and by ten I felt exhausted. It was odd because I was used to being up much later and today I didn't even have the excuse of marathon sex with my Viking vampire. I just felt drained so I crashed.

For the first time ever, I dreamt about Quinn. Not even when I was missing him like hell did I dream of him. I'd just had nightmares full of blood and screams. This was more vivid. I saw him in the same back office of his gym and he was just staring ahead with those pansy purple eyes. He held his hand out for me and smiled. Suddenly, I was being shaken awake.

"Ashai,"

I blinked and found Lynx looking down at me, with his eyes aglow. "Ashai is tired." I mumbled.

"It not safe for Ashai to dream."

My mind was like a cotton ball. I just wanted to go back to sleep so badly. My eyes lids felt like they weighed a ton and they drooped against my will.

"Nei," Lynx said firmly. "Is not safe." he pulled me into a sitting position. My head flopped as if my neck had forgotten how to hold it up.

Lynx sat down on the bed and looked into my eyes. His grew brighter and brighter until I saw the dream I just had playing in my head except this time, I was watching it from the outside. The scene was foggy and cold, not warm and welcoming like it had felt a short while ago. It also had an extra person. A woman I hadn't noticed before was behind Quinn. Her eyes were closed and she appeared entranced. My dream-self couldn't see her though.

Then Lynx tapped my forehead and the dream vanished and suddenly I wasn't so tired anymore. "Witch speak Ashai name," he told me.

"Witch?" I asked baffled, "Why would one be messing in my head?"

I didn't know any witches and that was how I liked it. From what Sam had told me so long ago witches, like everyone else, they used their talents to make a living. Unless this one had a personal beef with me, which seemed very unlikely, someone had to be paying her. As scared as I was, I didn't want to call Eric. I mean, if Lynx could solve the problem I didn't see why I should worry him. He was dealing with enough already. This couldn't have anything to do with the attack in New Orleans weeks ago. Sophie-Anne's husband was still paying dearly for it.

Finding out the who and the why was more important. In the event I had to inform Eric, I would already have answers. It might curb his kneejerk response to overreaction, though I didn't hold out much hope.

"Can you find witches' shadow if Ashai does not speak her name?" I asked Lynx. I hoped so because I didn't know it.

"Lynx see power." He said, nodding. "Not need name now."

"Don't kill her," I said. "Bring her here."

I went into the kitchen to wait and Cypher joined me. I poured us tea. He didn't drink it but not serving him seemed rude. I didn't have long to wait. Lynx appeared ten minutes later. He looked happier than I'd ever seen which was obviously very bad for the woman he had with him. I recognized her from the dream, not her face, but her build. From her mental signature she was a Werewolf. Great. I didn't know Werewolves could be witches too. That double whammy didn't do her much good against Lynx.

"Tricky witch," he said. "But Lynx bring her to Ashai."

"Thank you?" I said uncertainly.

He smiled and it was utterly unsetting, then he kicked her legs out from under her so she was on her knees in front of me. All the while his shadow kept a hold on her neck and her hands bound behind her back. It was like something out of a horror movie and it was making my skin crawl. There were dark tendrils of smog dancing like animated shadows, curling and spiraling out from her ears and nose.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Hall..." she wheezed and gagged.

More wisps of what had to be Lynx's shadow came pouring from her mouth and climbing up her face, like dark sinewy vines crawling over the bricks of a house, or a swarm of critters. She looked terrified and had to be in a whole of hurt. I couldn't stand it anymore.

"Lynx," I said, turning my head. "Just hold her, take the shadow away."

Slowly the dark shadow that had crawled into the Were's body receded. Her rigid posture eased and she took a couple deep breaths.

"Ashai let Lynx eat witch after?" he asked, with a bright new look on his face. It was eerier than his normal bland expression. The woman shook her head as much as his shadow grip would allow and let out a sharp high pitched cry. I shuddered. How horrible could it be listening to people discuss eating you for dinner?

"She not smell so nice," Cypher commented, from his place at my elbow. "And is small."

"Not many smell nice," Lynx said, shrugging. "Britlingen Hellion say barbecue sauce make all better."

"Barbecue sauce?" Cypher asked curiously.

This was the most they've ever talked at once. I listened and watched out of morbid fascination.

"Is like ketchup and burning sauce but in one," he explained. "Ashai have," he pointed to the cabinet where I kept my condiments.

Cypher went and sniffed at the bottle of barbecue sauce. Then he reached for the steak sauce and sampled that too. Suddenly he didn't seem to mind the scent of Were. His eyes were now sizing up the witch for his dinner plate.

"Ashai, this barbecue sauce too?" Cypher asked passing the bottle of 'A1' to Lynx.

"No it's steak sauce," I said, kneading my temples. "Listen, no one is eating anyone. Just tell me who, what, where, why, and I'll tell him to bring you back in one piece."

"John Quinn," the witch said immediately.

The thought had entered my mind but I'd prayed like hell it wasn't so. Getting confirmation sent my heart into my stomach. I hadn't thought about him in so long. The thought shamed me but so much time had passed. He never attempted to contact me. I'd hoped he had moved on. I hoped he was happy but I'd just been hoping for too much.

"He said you loved him and he loved you," she said urgently. "But the vampire was keeping you apart and he couldn't risk contacting you any other way. I swear, I swear I'm not lying!"

I believed her. "Do you know where he is?" I asked.

"He's been living out of a motel in Minden since your husband burned down his house and gym."

Guilt and shame set in. Not once had I stopped and wondered what else Eric had done. He had only agreed not to kill him but he had taken away his livelihood. I'd been well off, and he'd had nothing. I couldn't go near Quinn, if not because I loved my husband and now respected him, then because I'd promised. I had to do something. It was my fault he had lost everything.

I was weighing my past against my present. They both mattered and marked the person I was but only one held a future. One of the things Eric had added during remodeling of the house was a safe. I emptied the contents minus jewelry. In total there had to be at least $200,000 cash, if not more. With the funds from my dowry account that Eric never let me spend, I could replenish the safe in no time.

I handed the witch a pillowcase full of money and it still didn't feel like enough. It felt like I was cheapening what I had with Quinn. In that moment I understood why Eric always threw money at anything I looked at. When you cared about someone and you felt like you weren't doing enough, material things were a limitless option to fill the gap.

"Take $20,000 and give him the rest," I instructed. She was due more than that for her pain and suffering but I didn't have any more on hand.

"I will," she said, nodding vigorously. I didn't have to tell her I would find her if she didn't.

"Tell him…tell him I'm sorry," I told the witch. "I'm so sorry I hurt him. I'm happy now and I hope one day he will be too."

I felt like a cold heartless bitch. I felt like I was torturing Quinn all over again but I let Lynx disappear with the witch in tow without batting an eye.

**~oooooo~**

I spent the next couple days at my farmhouse. I didn't get the feeling of being in a safe haven. I was thinking of Quinn, wondering if what I provided would be enough help him start over. Every night before bed when I spoke with Eric, I wanted to tell him but I just couldn't.

"I will find Marcus," Eric said over the phone, "Then I will come home."

"Okay," I replied, getting comfortable in bed. "I miss you."

"I miss you more." he murmured. He sighed, and it was a sound that was full of longing. "How was your day?"

"I didn't do much," I told him.

I heard a car door close on his end and I knew I only had a few minutes before something or someone pulled him away. "Tell me anyway," he said.

So I talked. I told him about tending the flowerbeds and how Sam's girlfriend was taking me the underground college for supes. I was learning about Shadow Wraiths and how to better communicate with mine. I told him about everything except Quinn and the witch. It wasn't because I thought he would be angry. The thought of telling him about it heightened my shame.

All the musings of my conscience that had been silent while I'd been having my affair was heavy in my stomach now. It only got worse with each passing day; with every tender act my husband showed. Since the day he said he would forgive and forget the indiscretion, Eric never brought it up or threw it my face, not once. It wasn't so bad that I wanted it to remain forgotten also?

"I am happy you have had a good day," he said.

I laughed. He really did sound better after just listening to me prattle. "I hope yours will be even better."

"Let us hope," he said doubtfully.

"Even if it sucks, I love you anyway," I said stifling a yawn.

"And I love you," he said. "Before you go…"

I didn't recognize the emotion to his voice. He hesitated for a moment too long. He sounded almost…unsure. That wasn't possible. The man was confident to the point of flagrant arrogance sometimes.

"Yes?" I wondered.

"Back in Manhattan, you said you were thinking about babies." I think I gasped audibly but he just spoke over me. "What did you mean?" he asked.

"Um…er…I was looking forward to my next birthday when we would be able to start trying to make some." It never occurred to me that he might not want it too. So I began trying to back pedal. "That's months off and—"

"I wanted to… I just wanted to hear you say it," I heard a knock and I knew he had to go. "I need to go lover, we'll talk more when I get home. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," I replied dumbly. I went to bed that night with a big stupid smile on my face.

I was having breakfast the next morning feeling like I was on cloud nine when I heard the approaching visitor. The mental sign was unique, and it sent my heart plummeting. John Quinn was barreling down my driveway on a motorcycle.

I was on my front porch in an instant. "You have to go," I told him before he dismounted.

"I see he took you up on the bargain of being his whore," he said coolly. "I smell him all over you."

His insult didn't bother me. He was angry and I understood that. "You have to go," I said firmly. "I'm sorry—"

"Yeah I heard," he snarled. He stalked over the gravel and barely made a sound. "You're sorry and you're happy."

"Quinn, please stop." I said.

He didn't listen. He just kept right on strolling my way. I took steps back to compensate so he wouldn't cross my shadow. I didn't want Cypher to misinterpret his aggression and overreact.

_"Stop_," I said, trying to infuse my tone with as much as command as possible.

A smiled twisted his tanned face. It was nothing like the playful one I'd always known him to wear. This one was cold, calculating, and cruel even. "Are you sterile?" he asked.

"_What_?"

"Can you have children?" he clarified.

I didn't know what he was getting at but it didn't matter. He had worn out my patience. If the tables were turned and he was happy and I wasn't, I would be hurt but I would take comfort in his happiness.

"_Leave!_" I told him.

"I figured you couldn't because with all the holes I poked in the condoms you weren't ever late, not even once,"

It was as if I had been dunked in a pool of snakes. The sickly, slithering feeling tightened my throat and coiled through my stomach. I felt nauseous. He wouldn't do that - but then I remembered all the times he almost 'forgot' a condom, or when he tried to forgo one intentionally. No, he wouldn't have intentionally impregnated me knowing what Eric could have done to all three of us. Quinn would have never done that to me or an innocent child - but he had. He just told me that he had. I was dizzy and that was how I didn't notice him standing directly in front of me.

"Aw…babe you don't look so good," he mocked, "This might make you feel better. I only fucked your sorry ass and listened to piss poor life story because your fanger ruined my family." I kept moving back until my back was against the screen door but he just wouldn't stop talking and the world wouldn't stop spinning.

"Shut up!" I screamed at him. "Shut up!"

"Knocking you up was the best insurance policy. Figured I'd cover my bases in case you were on a pill so I caught it all on tape! 'Course your vamp covered his bases too when he burned down every place I'd ever lived in the last ten years."

My stomach turned and I hurled in my flowerbed until I was dry, but he wouldn't stop talking. He. Would. Not. Stop.

"That bastard deserved to see his virgin wife get fucked by another man. You leaving him for me would have been the best payday ever, but you wouldn't. Anyway you were getting old so I sent him video of every moment you spent sucking my dick and spreading your legs on my cheap sofa. So you whored yourself out to man you hated to save a man that didn't give two shits."

He shook his head as if I was dumber than he could have ever imagined or hoped for. "The real kicker?" he continued. "The real fucking joke is you, babe. You think I'm not over you," he laughed and he seemed genuinely amused. "I tapped a real easy piece of tail. The whipping was a bitch but I got all healed, plus the $200,000 more than made up for it. So who's happy now, you dumb slut?"

My world collapsed in on itself. I launched at him screaming and cursing but I didn't hurt him, and all the while he laughed. He just wouldn't stop laughing as he'd no doubt been doing since the moment we met. It was all I could hear. It was filling my ears and crushing my soul. He glided out of my way and I was a hair away from running into the porch post.

Cypher caught my face in his chest with his physical form. His shadow was behind Quinn. It wrapped and clung to him like life-sized piece of Saran Wrap. Suddenly the bastard wasn't laughing anymore. I watched as he tried to shift or move but couldn't. Cypher's shadow pried his mouth open and crawled into him like smoke being sucked into a vacuum. Quinn jerked, contorted, and then he fell to the ground. There was only a nose bleed to indicate he'd been harmed.

I ran inside, grabbed all the condiments I had on hand from Maple syrup to Salad dressing, and offered them to my Shadow Wraiths.

"Eat," I told them. "Do not come to me until I call."

They nodded and accepted the bottles. Jumping in the car, I began the five-hour drive to New Orleans. I wasn't leaving because I couldn't stand to watch. It was because I was no better. All the hurt, guilt, shame, and pain I caused my husband was rooted so deep in me, so much deeper than anything else I'd ever felt, more than love and hate. How sick of person had I become? I'd whored myself in the name of vengeance. I'd begun chasing who I thought was a monster, but the only monsters were Quinn and I. I was the only one left now and I had to die. _I had to_.

* * *

**A/N: So I know I've been spoiling you all with daily update but the next one will be a few days away. My timing is super shitty but I can't help that. Also the Fic is almost at it's end so I want to make sure I sew up all my loose ends and properly deliver the HEA. **


	32. Chapter 32

**A/N: 'Dead Ever After' is officially out and the forums are on fire. So I know you guys don't miss me at all! But I was able to get something's done ahead of schedule so I figured I'll pop back into my favorite fantasy world, where no one is asking me about their wallet or keys and a Tasmanian devil is posing as my daughter.**

**Eva (Guest) who left me a review and was worried, have no fear. Seriously, I really am all for readers voicing questions and concerns to answer your question,: **

**The purpose of the witch was to ensnare her. If Sookie had touched Quinn in the dream she would have reawakened her infatuation. ****Quinn is full of himself. He went back because Sookie dared to 'dump' and he wanted to ruin her happiness just to add insult to injury. (Hope that helps)**

**On another note, 'Happy Birthday' to me!**

* * *

**Eric**

**Chapter Thirty-Two**

* * *

As Bobby approached, I knew I was out of time to speak with my wife. So I broached a topic that had never been far from mind since she mentioned it.

"Before you go…" I began but then I hesitated.

It wasn't that I didn't want to ask the question I wasn't sure I could handle the answers. Truthfully, I never stopped thinking about it. I never stopped dreaming what it would be like to have her as the mother of my child.

"Yes?" she replied.

No matter how badly I wanted anything, I never wanted Sookie to feel forced with me with anything she gave, especially not this. This was something she couldn't undo or take back. "Back in Manhattan," I began carefully. "You said you were thinking about babies." I heard her sharp intake of breath but I spoke over her. "What did you mean?"

She floundered for a second as she tried to answer. Then she finally said, "I was looking forward to my next birthday when we would be able to start trying to make some."

I smiled to myself. The possibility wasn't something I'd ever imagined. When she had first offered, it had been a mere act of desperation. Yet, when she had spoken the thoughts there had been a happy glow to her face, like it was something she too would relish. I wanted to watch her body swell with my seed. It was something that the inherent male in me desired. I wanted to have with her no other man had; walking, talking proof of the love we shared.

It was my turn to be stunned speechless but she misinterpreted the silence and tried to assuage any concerns. "That's months off and—"

"I wanted to… I just wanted to hear you say it," I couldn't even tell her how happy she just made me. "I need to go lover, we'll talk more when I get home. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," she said.

"Sorry to interrupt," Bobby said. "The Bards found him. He's in New Mexico. The jet's fueled and ready."

"Thank you," I told my assistant.

Lilly and Bard Leeds had finally found Marcus and come hell or high water, I was getting him to return to his post. Marcus, like everybody Illeta had kept close, was devoted to her and therefore devastated by her loss. She had watched his great-grandfather grow-up. From the time of her arrival in this valley ages ago, she had taken a patriarch from his line as her squire. Since then she acted as the de facto guardian of his descendants. With her blood she had saved many from the family, but never has she turned one. My sister only had one son and she had been forced to kill him herself. Had she lived forever she would never have made a vampire child. Pam and the descendants from her squire were as close as she got.

During the flight, my mind traveled back to the recent conversation I'd had with Sookie. Now would be a good time to talk about the one subject we were both avoiding, Sookie and her affair with Quinn. I would have to tell her the whole truth. The thought alone made me cringe. What did it matter? I wondered. After all, I'd forgiven her and it wasn't something I thought of often. When I did, I felt no more anger toward Sookie, just him.

It wasn't so bad we were pretending it never happened, was it? We had moved on, so what would it hurt? I wanted the future she painted without revisiting our ugly past. She loved me and I loved her more than anything. She wanted to have a baby with me. Was it so terrible that I didn't want to cause her pain?

"How did they find him all the way out here?" Clovache wondered aloud.

The Bards were the best. "It's the crossroads of dusty as hell and hot as hell," Batanya commented.

I looked around and found that I had to agree. My jet landed and there was nothing around the tiny municipal airport. Saying the place was remote was being a master of understatement. There was nothing but miles of red dirt and sand dunes. I had no reception on any of my devices; the air was heavy and the terrain unforgiving.

It saved me time to fly to him instead of waiting for a vehicle able to navigate the terrain. I finally landed on the steps of a tiny cabin that was miles from any trail. I couldn't imagine how a human of this time who'd lived in a city like Los Angeles was surviving here. Then again when looking to cut ties to the world, there was no better place. The area was so devoid of life there was only a single human heartbeat to be heard. It had to be Marcus.

"This is Eric," I said, not bothering to knock.

Lamps were burning so he was awake but he seemed to have been frozen at the sound of my voice. His heart was beating rapidly and he extinguished a lamp, to what purpose I knew not. Perhaps he had forgotten I was a vampire and could hear him breathing. I sighed. My usual mode of issuing threats and using force wasn't something I would employ, not with him. I truly hoped this would be easier.

"Surely you do not intend to leave me out here," I continued, in a reproachful tone.

With a sigh he shuffled towards the door and opened it. He looked like he hadn't shaved or showered in days. "Mr. Northman," he greeted. "I know what you want and I can't go back," he said. "I can't."

"I need your help and if you won't come back because I'm asking, then help me because Illeta would want you to."

"That's not fair," he said, instantly teary-eyed.

"It was not supposed to be," I conceded. "Nothing can diminish your pain but time. Hiding and abandoning the life you had with her only insults her memory."

That was a low blow, but I wasn't above those at the moment. I'd been away from Sookie for days. I wasn't any closer to making heads or tails of my sister's corporate accounts. That was one reason to go in search of him. The other was he would have wallowed away in this hole. I know he would have. I also knew Illeta loved him too much to have him suffer such a fate.

"I will guilt you, shame you, anger you, and I am not above insulting you, but I will get you out of this house and back to work."

He looked down at his feet, defeated. We both knew I wouldn't go away and deep down I don't believe he wanted to sever all his ties to her. "I should have known she wasn't happy…" he said, looking up at me. "But she…I don't get it."

"It is the opposite," I told him. "She chose to leave this world because for so long it was guilt and fear that kept her hanging on. She was happy. She'd finally forgiven herself and found peace. She never wanted to part with it again."

It wasn't the answer he wanted because he didn't understand. The truth was he wouldn't understand in his one lifetime. As old as Pam was she didn't understand either. To begin comprehending suffering so great, you had to live it and fortunately, neither of them had. Marcus would persevere over his grief just as Pam and I were doing. If my sister had seen nothing else in him, she had seen someone that would give to this world, not just take from it. His pain wouldn't yet allow him to see that, but there was no doubt in my mind that one day he would.

"I am leaving," I told him. "I am going home and I ask that you do the same. I need you to help me preserve my sister's life's work."

"She always said you fought dirty," he said, wiping his eyes, but he stood a little straighter. He wasn't happier but he looked less bereft.

I shrugged. "Leta thought me how."

By the time I arrived back at the airport, my jet had lost its place in air traffic. It has been days since I've seen my wife and the separation was an ache in my chest the second I woke. Instead of waiting, I flew myself to the regional airport and took a commercial Anubis flight. Sookie didn't want me racing the sun home to her. In this instance I was racing the sun to wait for her. It was two totally different things. I was already smiling at the fit she would throw if she knew that my flight didn't get into New Orleans until a half hour before dawn. I knew I would find a delicious way to make her forget her anger.

I flew home with fifteen minutes to spare. The lack of my wife's heartbeat disappointed me though it shouldn't. I already knew she wasn't here and I no longer worried that it was thoughts of another man that pulled her away from my bed. It was loneliness. She loved me and sleeping in our bed without me was hard. I would surprise her tomorrow in her hometown. I couldn't wait to see her eyes and her smile and to continue the last conversation we had.

**~ooooo~**

Someone was attempting to wake me while the sun was still up. The first semiconscious thought I had was that it wasn't Batanya. It couldn't be. If ever she had to wake me it was a smoother transition than what I was experiencing at the moment. The effects on my body were rougher this time. Knowing this was important, I tried to combat my instincts and slowly rise. I was groggy, in a stupor, blinking in and out of consciousness. So it took several me minutes to get my eyes to see anything other than a blur.

What I did see after that was Batanya and Clovache in full attack mode. They zealously guarded a perimeter set across the foot of my bed. Someone was testing that line and they weren't doing a bad job. But good wouldn't be enough to get past my guards. There was a reason I had Britlingens. They were the best.

I was having difficulty seeing much detail. There was a flourish of dark hair and denim. That glimpse was mixed in with those of my guards. All parties involved in the fray were moving too fast for my dimmed senses to hone in on. As muddled as I was, I caught the scent of Fae. This was a full-blooded one and it had been wounded. Its blood was everywhere. It called to me. The scent of Fae blood was causing a new haze to overtake me.

Faery or not, my guards were fighting to kill. Their attacks were directed at vital organs and her head. The faery rolled neatly from a series of stars that had been aimed at her neck. Mid-summersault she vanished, when she came up her hands glowed and they were pointed at my face. Clovache launched, and Batanya moved to take the blow of whatever was coming.

It went through her causing her to shudder and drop to the ground then it hit me in the face. It blinded me momentarily but it didn't harm. It seriously annoyed me. I was instantly alert and the faery knew she was done for. Instinctively she backed herself into a corner and by the look on her face she was out of tricks.

Batanya had already shaken off the pain. She was behind me with my head trapped in lock with no wiggle room. "Focus on her face, remember her voice," she said. "Focus Eric."

The faery called out to me. "Your wife is dying!" she shouted at me but her eyes were on Clovache who was closing in on her.

All three of us froze and looked at her. Without needing to be asked Clovache was using my personal phone to try to reach Sookie. He called her cell, her room, and car, all to no avail. Still I refused to believe Sookie had come to harm.

"That's not possible," I said calmly.

She was lying to buy time. She was trying to trick me. There was no way that was possible. I made sure of it. "Lynx and Cypher…" I mumbled trying to rationalize the fear that was growing. "They—"

"She bound them," the faery said. "She seeks to punish herself and to free you."

"Quiet!" I growled. "She wouldn't do that."

I couldn't even process what she was saying much less accept it. The last night I'd spoken to my wife we had been discussing her day and the prospect of children. She wouldn't ever do what the faery was suggesting, not now. She loved me; she wouldn't do this to me. An assassination attempt was a much more favorable explanation for her presence if that was the truth. But she couldn't tell a direct lie. My denial was only wasting time.

"Lock down the house," I said, getting out of bed.

My movements weren't fluid because I was attempting to move faster than my body could manage. I didn't care. I left the room without awaiting confirmation on the order I'd given. I was moving through the sunlit house as carefully as I could. The metal shades were falling slowly and I was moving in whatever shadow I could find. I didn't avoid all the burns but most were negligible. In this part of the house there was ample coverage.

By the time I reached the long walkway connecting me to the rest of the house I could move freely. It when I caught the scent of it; blood, her blood. It was unique in its blend and taste. I would know it anywhere. There was so much of it. It permeated the house and it was all I could smell.

I flew to her room and it was there I saw what she had done. Sookie had trapped both her guards in sea salt. They snarled and hissed but couldn't get free of the confines. The salt exposed their demon forms. The laws of this world refused to allow them to roam in that state. The teachings from the inter-dimensional college, I shouldn't have allowed it. I should have fought her but it had made her so happy to be able to better understand her guards. I'd made her safe from everyone but herself.

I have seen and done many horrific things throughout my long existence. What I saw upon throwing open the bathroom door thrust me headlong into the deepest circle of hell. My wife was lying prone and unconscious in the empty bathtub with her wrists slit. They were gaping, so much so that I was offered a view of tendons and bone. The faery had been wrong. Sookie wasn't dying, she was dead.

I didn't get to see her take her last breath. I never heard her heart patter and give out. There was no life in her. Instinctively I gave her my blood but nothing happened. I gave her enough to turn her but I didn't feel the connection forming between us. She was utterly and truly beyond my reach. All the positive emotions she had awakened in me withered to dust and died along with her. I did the only thing I could do. I denied what I knew was true. I retreated into a place where she was safe and still with me.

Changing Sookie's clothes and cleaning her body was a compulsive thing. There was blood everywhere, so much blood. It was all over her and it didn't belong. I had to get if off her. It would all be alright if I just cleaned her body. With gentle strokes I wiped her clean and dressed her in an oversized shirt she loved. If she was wearing something familiar and comfortable she would definitely come back. I brushed her hair and pulled it away from her face.

I laid Sookie down and tucked her into bed. She was sleeping, not dead. I stood watching, waiting for her to wake. She didn't. Her chest was still and her heart silent. I wanted to hold her and beg her to come back. My legs refused to move. I was too far gone for tears. I was beyond words. I couldn't feel the wetness of the blood and water still on my skin. There was nothing.


	33. Chapter 33

**A/N: This chapter and the last were supposed to be one. Since I didn't want to leave anyone on pins and needles, you get a double scoop. **

**As this Fic is reaching it's end I wanted to take the time to first and foremost thank my Beta's (Rebecca and Ms. Buffi) without their eagle eyes my fat fingers would be making all of your eyes bleed :D. **

**I also want to thank everyone that took the time to review and help me reach my goal of breaking 1000. This is my most popular story to date and it wouldn't have been possible without each and every one of you, so thank you. **

* * *

**Eric**

**Chapter Thirty-three**

* * *

Someone had their arm around me, trying to pull me away. I looked and saw Batanya, still battle worn, attempting to do her duty. She need not have bothered. I was a danger to no one. There was nothing left in this world for me to fear. With Sookie gone, the monster I was had been broken. He was as broken as the humanity she had awakened in me. I was a hollow shell of a creature.

The world around me was fast slipping away. Nothing was registering as it should. It was because that pool was rising, the tides of my grief were crashing against my numbness. I couldn't let it. Sure as I knew my name, I knew that if I moved or let myself feel then this would be real. My mind and heart would no longer be able to reject what my head was telling me. The struggle brought me to my knees.

Lynx appeared by Sookie's bedside. He looked into her face and his eyes glowed. "Lynx keep Ashai spirit from shadow." He said climbing onto the bed beside her. His shadow seemed to hold hers by the hand and but the physical limb was pressed to the middle of her chest, causing her body to jolt. Then both of them became eerily still. She wasn't breathing but my undead life no longer registered her as dead, undead, or living. She was in between.

"How long?" I asked, feeling an ounce of hope. He was trapping her spirit to this world. I knew what he was doing was a stall tactic. It would buy me time that the sun had stolen.

"Shadow not fight moon," he said. "When it rise, it pull away all spirits not belong on this world."

Sundown was only seven hours away. That was all the time I had to make something happen. I rose and went over to Sookie. It was so wrong to see her so still. But I had hope and I would take every shred of it and every minute Lynx could buy me. I had no idea what could be done but I knew I would do any and every thing I could for her.

"I will save you," I told her, kissing her head. "I will save you."

Maybe I couldn't save her from the monster I was or the twisted love I had for her but I could save her from death. That much I could do; no matter the price I would pay it. Money could buy many things. Fear could motivate and power could tip any scale. I put all of it into motion, every contact, every asset, and every resource.

Batanya called Ludwig and the witch I used. There was nothing Ludwig could do. Nothing Octavia, the witch, could do that would restore her life and her spirit. Desperation and hopelessness were setting in but I refused to let them, not until the clock ran out. I used Sookie's phone and made a call to Niall.

Sookie might be mostly human but she was also other. If there was any hope of saving her then it would begin with her supernatural heritage. When it came to communication Niall and I kept it formal. I had someone summon him or he, me and we responded if we so chose. He wasn't going to get that choice today.

"This is Northman," I said once the line connected. "Send Niall to me now or I will be forced to come looking for him."

I hung up and the phone was still in my hands when it rang again. "Faery at the gate."

"Let him enter," I said.

Niall didn't bother walking. Once the wards around the house lowered to let him in he was in my office. He looked around curiously at the space he had appeared in. My body was thinking that a Fae was within arm's reach and distracted I would have good chance to drain him. No other part of me cared. I knew the instant he caught the scent of her blood. He stiffened.

"You were never to harm her," the Sky Prince hissed. He cocked his head. "She is dead," and it wasn't a question. Of all the heartbeats in the house moving and frantically working, none of them were remotely human in nature.

"Not beyond recall," I said. "You can help me bring her back."

He shook his head. "My kind does not have the ability to cheat death by changing from one species to another. When our life force is cut, we return to the homes of our forebearers in the Summerlands."

"Give her more time," I ordered. "Like your kind."

"I do not have that power," he said, rubbing his face.

He had something and if he didn't then he could search for someone that did. I just had to make him. "I have a female fairy here." I told him. "Dark hair, green eyes and fights with the style of your house."

His features turned to stone and the frail old man fell away. His row of sharp teeth and pointy ears made an appearance. "We have an alliance," he told me.

"It died with my wife," I told him. "Find a way to help me or the first casualty in my war against you will be the dark haired female."

"That is her guardian," he said, and power was rolling off him in waves. It was barely contained. He wanted to attack me but we both knew how that would end—at best, we would end each other. "She would want no harm to come to her."

"You don't know her," I said. "You don't know anything about her."

He growled. "You are too old to be playing a romantic. She is dead. There is nothing to gain in going to war with me. It won't bring her back."

"No but a war with me would cost you everything," I replied. "Find a way to give me what I need at a fair price and we will part on good terms once more. I swear it."

With a parting growl Niall disappeared. I knew he would return. I went to the guest room where the female fairy was being kept. She had been treated and the worst of her injuries were fading. She'd been given clothes and food. Kind as her treatment was she was still locked down. The chains around her ankles were iron lined with lead. It kept her where she was without causing her harm.

She watched me approach with wary eyes. "I don't want to hurt you," I told her. "I want information."

It dawned on her that while she had warned me it hadn't been enough. Her face fell and she looked grief stricken. "She is gone. Nothing I can tell you will change that."

For her sake I hoped that wasn't true. "You are my only bargaining chip to force the Prince's cooperation."

While I didn't want to hurt her, I would if it meant getting what I needed to save my wife. There had to be a way. I knew there was and it was rooted to Niall. If my wife was human enough then I could have turned her. For that matter, if she was human then she wouldn't have been able to give me a child. That thought made grief knot in my chest. That was the last thing we talked about and I hoped it wasn't the last conversation we'd ever have.

"Okay," a voice called. "Let's all play nice and put away our fangs."

Another fairy materialized from where the voice had originated. Had I not been watching his powers at work I would have sworn it was Jason, Sookie's odious brother. Yet it wasn't. This was a fairy.

The female shook her head and sighed. "May the Summerlands grant me peace for I have never known it with you as my ward," she said disparagingly. "I told you to leave."

"I'm trying to save your neck," he said dryly. "But give me a reason to change my mind, Claudine, and I will."

She said nothing and he looked to me. "Listen to me very carefully. There will be a lot of holes in what I tell you but if you can fill in the gaps you might be able to save her."

Before he could blink I was in front of him, fangs bared and my hand around his neck. The flare in temper and the sudden roar of thunder outside brought Batanya into the room.

"Do not toy with me." I warned coolly. "I assure you it will not end well."

"Eric," she called taking hold of my wrist. "This is a waste of time, stop."

I released him because she was right.

"Fucking vampires," the fairy complained. "Bite first and when everyone is dead ask questions."

"Talk," I said, stepping towards him.

"Try to fill in the gaps," he repeated. "Sookie has—" his body shuddered as if he'd been shocked. He hissed and gasped for breath. "Fuck, that hurt. Okay, let's say hypothetically," he spoke slowly, carefully as if testing what words would cause him pain. "Hypothetically, there is a thing that was created specifically for someone. This thing is—" His eyes bugged out and he wrapped his hands around his neck as if he was choking.

"He is trying to tell you something that he has sworn in blood to never to speak of," the female said, looking at him. She paused and repeated his last sentence to herself over and over. "This thing is rare, valuable?" she asked.

He nodded and I heard a bone in his body give way. He cried out and doubled over. "Fuck you Fintan, you bastard!"

Batanya was beside him trying to keep him upright. She and I shared a confused look. I had no idea what was going on. The one person that was willing and able to help was physically incapable to do so. After giving him water and sitting him down on a couch, my guard fitted him with the same chains the female had. It was nothing personal, we just needed to contain both of them for the time being.

"Who is Fintan?" I asked the female.

"His twin and Sookie's grandfather; he died before she born. His love for her grandmother was…" then her eyes grew wide. "Cluviel Dor!" she exclaimed. "It has to be. Very old magic, it is known as the deepest show of love. It is created specifically for one person that fits the entire criterion proposed by the creator. Few have the power or hearts pure enough to create one and because of that the Cluviel Dor isn't bound by many laws."

"Including death," I said, feeling my hopes renewed.

"Its value is immeasurable because all you have to do is wish your heart's desire," she said with a nod. "The only way to get one that wasn't made for you would be if the true owner is dead. Once Dermot passed it to Sookie as his twin intended, he could never speak of it, otherwise she wouldn't have been safe from anyone."

"So where is it? What does it look like?" I asked.

"I don't know," She said regretfully. "I have only heard of it in stories and there is no exact image, sometimes it's an ax other times a pebble. The only constant is that it has a pulse as if it's alive but that's all I know."

"She would have kept it safe." Batanya said. "Bank vaults, safes—"

It didn't matter. "Let's go," I said, pulling my guard out of the room.

The search began. I pulled in all my guards to search every inch of the house. Cypher and Tavorian traveled to Bon Temps to search Sookie's farmhouse, her woods, her brother's home, her former job, and her friends homes. By three that afternoon the bleeds had begun. I was getting weaker and weaker but it did nothing to slow my search. Niall returned around four.

"There is a chance that she could be reborn if I took her back to our world," he told me. "If it works you can never be with her because she will be as all fairies are." And I would have to fight the urge to drink her dry every time she was around.

I nodded. Like my attempt to turn her, Niall's solution would be a last resort. I knew Sookie wanted to remain who she was. "You may leave with your son as a show of my goodwill."

Clovache escorted the male fairy out of the guest room and Niall scowled in recognition.

"I want the female," he said. We all knew she was more valuable.

At the flagrant disregard for his safety, the other fairy simply rolled his eyes. "When we are alone I'm truly going to enjoy bursting your bubble," he sounded as though he couldn't wait.

"Come back at seven this evening," I told him. "If I have nothing then I will accept your offer. I will pay you with the female."

Niall would either be leaving with the female fairy because I'd saved Sookie or he would be leaving with my wife because I'd failed. He nodded and departed with the other fairy in tow. Five o'clock came. Only two hours now remained and I'd still found nothing. By six-forty, despair was setting in.

I could feel the sun falling further and further behind the horizon and never had I longed for daylight as I did at this very moment. I went into the master bedroom. Like all the rooms in the house it had been ransacked. It felt like I'd come so close. I'd been given a way to preserve the one thing I wanted most but I simply fell short. I always fell short when it came to my wife. I sat on the bed with my face in my hands. I wept not for myself but for my wife because once again, she was being robbed of her choice and I was the one to do it.

This was the worse punishment I could have ever been dealt for all the crimes I'd committed. It was my most intimate interpretation of hell. I'd loved her and fought to earn her love and she'd placed herself ever beyond my reach in the light of day. I never thought I would ever have more to lose than Pam and Illeta. But Leta was gone and it was just Pam. For Pam I would exist but it was for my wife that I lived. After everything that had passed it was her, it has always been her.

Sitting in the place where I was, I wished I'd simply killed to gain residency and not wed. It was true that I loved my wife. To spare her from this fate and the pain I caused her, I would have been happy to have left her in peace. If she came back I would let her go. I could live in a world where she wasn't with me, I just couldn't remain in a place where she wasn't.

Resolved, I cleaned my face. Out of habit I turned the lights on as I left the room. Sookie always preferred them on. That was how the faint shimmer from the vanity caught my eye. It came from behind the rows of perfumes lined across the front. Something incandescent was shining from behind a round bottle of perfume. It was a fleeting glance so I played with the light switch, clicking it on and off, and the strange shimmer flickered in tune.

If I'd been thinking clearly I would have known better than to look anywhere near a safe. Shrewd as my wife was she wouldn't hide anything in an obvious place. Instead she'd kept it in plain sight. I'd walked past it a thousand times and never knew it. The tumultuous emotions of this ordeal rained over me in full as did the mania from the lack of sleep. I laughed so hard tears escaped my eyes. My laughter drew everyone in the house to my location. They all shot me expressions that ranged from disparaging to sympathetic. Batanya looked flat out scared.

"I found it," I told them. "I found it!"

The minute I took the little green stone in my palm I felt it fluttering. I couldn't hear the beat of a heart but I knew it was alive if only spiritually. There was only one desire in my heart. It was so strong that the words barely left my lips before I felt the powerful magic unfurl and engulf the room.

It was going to bring Sookie back. I could feel it. Relief flooded me and I dropped down into the closest chair, feeling every ounce of angst and fatigue. I sat at my wife's bedside and waited. I didn't want to miss seeing it the instant she opened her eyes because the second after that, I was going to strangle her myself!

* * *

*****Spoiler Alert*****

I'm excited about the next chapter. Eric goes all big bad on Sookie.


	34. Chapter 34

**A/N: Note that this chapter begins with Sookie so please be advised that some readers might find the contents disturbing. Disclaimer: credit for the letter portion of the story are works and publications of Charlene Harris. **

* * *

**Sookie**

**Chapter Thirty-Four**

* * *

**Earlier that day…**

The nonstop drive did nothing to keep me attached to this world. When I arrived the house was empty, as I knew it would be. Eric was in California, and Abigail never worked while we were away. It was why I came here—no one would think to look for me. There were no sounds to be heard outside other than the silent hum of the cooling system and my sandals slapping against my heel as I walked. I've walked through this house a thousand times. Walking the halls with the knowledge of what I'd become made me feel like an intruder. After a quick stop in the kitchen I headed upstairs.

I stared into the room I'd chosen when I first arrived. I remembered the first time I'd laid eyes upon it. I remembered all the things that made me hate it, how it would never be comfortable to me, how I believed it to have been a cage. It was the furthest from the master quarters and from Eric. It was funny because that was how I felt now, so very far from Eric, so far from me, and so very far from human. He'd known all along, so he couldn't love me, could he?

Yet, he'd taken out the policy to insure I was taken care of and that couldn't be real either. It gave me solace. He was smart enough to beat me at my own game and I hadn't even known he was a player. I believed Eric loved me. I'd believed it with everything I had. Looking back now, I didn't know what I was thinking. He was over a thousand years old. Why or how did I ever think I stood a chance? Why did I ever think I could beat him at a game of deceit? I couldn't. He had his fun with me while he laughing at me in his head, and the sad truth was I deserved it.

Eric didn't love me. None of the happy memories were real and with this knowledge, all that was left me of simply crumbled to dust and drifted wafted away. I'd tainted them even before they'd made. I didn't want to believe this even though Eric firmly said he had never lied to me. I had no right to be hurt by this but I was; I was so not deserving of it but I'd wanted it so badly. When I'd felt like I'd earned it, it was something I knew I could count on, but it had never been truly earned and so I had nothing.

On my way to draw the circles to bind my Shadow Wraiths, I caught sight of the shoebox that Gran's letter. I owed her so much. With oddly steady hands I took the worn envelope and carefully opened it. The scrawl was familiar; it had been on grocery lists, phone messages, and reminders of stuff to do throughout my whole life. I began to read:

_"Dear Sookie,_

_I think you'll find this, if anyone does. There's nowhere else I can leave it, and when I think you're ready I'll tell you where I put it…"_

In her letter she explained it all; her desperate desire to be a mother, her knowledge she knew Fintan was other, her guilt at betraying her husband, and how we had all somehow made it worthwhile in the end. She never planned on hiding any of it from me. Even in death she'd wanted me to know the truth.

_"…I hope you're not mad at me, or think worse of me. All God's children are sinners. At least my sinning led to a life for you and Jason and Hadley._

_Adele Hale Stackhouse (Grandmother)"_

Like Eric, Gran had been on the receiving end of anger she hadn't deserved. I wanted to cry but I had no more tears. It wasn't as though I felt nothing; I felt soulless, not guilty. I felt hollow, not numb. I tucked the letter gently back in its envelope, returned to my room, and drew the circles. They were wide so Lynx and Cypher wouldn't be in pain. Then I stepped inside them.

"Cypher, Lynx," I called, "Fall to my shadow."

They materialized on either side of me and I stepped out of the circles. They both dropped to their knees as if some unknown force was bearing down on them and their shadows pulled away from their physical forms and engulfed them. Their human forms were gone though they were still humanesque in their forms. They were just huge, standing close to ten feet. Their skin was black as tar and covered in scales that shone like polished marble but their hair was long and ghostly white, as were their eyes.

This world always had rules to balance otherworldly creatures. Vampires had sunlight and silver, fairies had iron, and Shadow Wraiths had sea salt. The only one who could free them was me and I wouldn't. They would never let me hurt myself any more than they would let someone else hurt me.

"It's okay," I said. "Don't fight."

They were hissing and snarling so viciously that I don't think they heard. I left them and walked into the en suite bathroom. I wondered if I would go to Hell. It was a definite possibility. Suicide is a sin. This was what I'd been taught in Bible study growing up. Adultery was as well along with a slew of other things I'd done, yet I didn't think you were sent to Hell because you chose to punish yourself and save someone else from your evil. I mean, God knew. He knew all the reasons behind the whats and whys. He might be a vengeful God, but he was also a merciful one. I didn't want His mercy, and I didn't want His understanding. I didn't deserve it, not after all the wrong I'd done. I just wanted it all to stop.

Settling into the tub, I thought about a time when this would have all seemed cowardly. Giving up was a fool's game. I was raised to fight till you couldn't fight anymore and I was done. As I settled into the cold hard tub I knew I wasn't worth fighting for. Ironically enough, when I was a kid I was so scared of dying. There was so little of my family left and then my parents were taken suddenly. I'd felt as if Death was out to get me, as if It was around every corner. After my parents died I sat in my room and didn't so much as run, or skip or take a detour. I didn't want to die then. Now I did.

There was no emotion in me as I held the razor poised over my left wrist. I waited for some fear or, adrenaline, but nothing came. The pain of slicing my wrist open didn't register. I watched the blood flow but didn't feel any need to make it stop. I felt nothing. After cutting my other wrist I just sat there trying to ignore the snarls of my guards.

"Lynx, Cypher," I said. "Simmer down."

They didn't. They continued their growling and I ignored them. The more blood I lost, the less I was able to register. To shut out the noise my guards were making, I looked around the bathroom. There was a mosaic tiled wall that formed the most intricate and beautiful pattern. I never saw her until now because I'd never cared to look; instead I'd longed for my claw foot tub every time I'd sat here in the past.

I looked at the tiles and the design popped out at me. The image wasn't a garden like I always thought, it was a woman. Her luxurious long hair was blonde spanning the colors of marigolds, lilies, and countless other yellow flowers I couldn't name. They wrapped around her, not covering her breasts but hiding them in plain sight. I stared at the image until my vision began to flicker and blur. I wondered who the blond haired woman was.

I saw the last two years. Physically my body responded to his with the predictable chemistry of paper and fire. That started what began chipping away at the wall and obscured my mission on vengeance.

During all of that, every time he'd taken me out of town with him, taken me out to eat, flew me on his back through whatever city we were in that night; all could have been pure. They could have been happy memories, but I never let myself completely have him or them. My misguided devotion to revenge had tainted everything.

I didn't start giving Eric all of me until recently and these past few months had been the best part of my life. It's kind of true what they say, at least in some sense. When you're facing death your life does flash before your eyes. For me, I didn't see a reel of twenty-six and a-half-years in fast forward; I saw Eric. I wished more than anything he could have loved me but the semblance was enough, and as the blood continued to gush from my wounds, I smiled.

~ooooo~

It was strange to be so sure you were dead only to wake up looking and feeling physically fine. I was in my room in my favorite t-shirt. Maybe it was all a bad dream. Maybe none of it had happened. No, it was real. I could taste the horror of it and I could feel the monster I'd become. Somehow, someway, someone had stopped me. I hadn't succeeded in freeing Eric from my cruelty.

It was as if thinking his name brought my eyes to where he was. He was as still as only a vampire could be. Eric was seated in a winged-back chair to my right side. He looked like he always did, beautiful in an ethereal way. He was leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees and his fingers clasped under his chin. I couldn't tell his facial expression because his slick blonde hair was a curtain shrouded around his face.

"Do you have any idea what you've put me through?" His voice was like I'd never heard it. I wanted to look at him so I could read the expression on his face, but shame and guilt kept my eyes glued to the wall.

"I'm sorry," I told him. It sounded like such paltry recompense for all the ways I'd wronged him but I had nothing else to say.

"Sorry? Sorry!" he snarled, rising slowly. "That is all you have to say to me? Fuck your sorry!"

He looked at me and those eyes of his weren't calm or probing. They were narrowed slits, and I could feel the anger rolling off him. The darkness seemed to swirl in the clouds and in the distance lightening lit the sky. He moved with all the grace and controlled fierceness of a predator on the hunt, a predator who was headed in my direction.

"After everything, after all we've been through, how could you!" he roared, his hair blew in the heavy wind as he was closer to the door than I. He wasn't walking; he was hovering slightly over the floor. Eric had never been more beautiful or more terrifying. "What you did was selfish, cowardly, and just plain stupid."

The wind was howling so fiercely the double doors of my balcony were ripped open and the curtains billowed in the night. The closer he got, the closer the zigzagging light show got to the house. It was happening so quickly the clap of thunder didn't seem to be able to keep up.

"You literally forced me to walk through hell and back," his fingers clenched and unclenched. The force of nature ripping the night sky apart followed the beat. Outside a tree was struck by lightning and caught fire. "And you think I deserve—"

My lip trembled and I fought my tears but I shook my head. "You don't deserve any of what—"

"Woman, so help me..." he growled.

I silenced myself not because I was scared but because I didn't want him to lose anymore control. He exhaled a breath he didn't need and the light fixtures in the room blazed for a moment and some of the bulbs shattered. Suddenly it all went quiet and that was more eerie than his show of rage. The light show outside stopped. After a few delayed claps of thunder, the wind died and the rain began. As the storm outside calmed so did Eric.

"Is it so terrible to find happiness in my arms?" he whispered, landing on the floor. His form was again a mask of cool. "What is it in me that you hate so?" he continued softly.

His anger I understood but not this. I didn't know what he was getting at. I couldn't stand to tell him another lie, so I told him the worst of who I was and what I'd done. In killing me he might find some peace.

"I wanted to kill you over him. You, over someone that…" Words failed me because just thinking of it made me want to vomit all over again. "That fact was what drove me every second I was with you."

I admitted it because he had to know. The words left my lips and I felt like just as scummy as Quinn should. Never in my life would I have thought myself capable of something so vile. It didn't matter that I couldn't do it when I had the chance. It didn't matter that I loved him now. Everything I had done before that love came about tainted the chances of anything good coming from it.

"I know," he said. "I knew it the moment I looked at you the next day. I felt it the first time we kissed. I felt the hesitation in your touch when we made love."

I looked up at him. Over time I'd grown to be able to read him at least a little and he looked like he was being honest. This didn't make any sense. He'd known all along that I wanted to hurt him. I'd been sure everything that led us here had been the both us locked in a game of duplicity.

"I don't understand," I told him sincerely.

He sighed. "I love you. It is a blessing and a curse but I will always love you. I wanted you to want me so much that I was willing to settle for the mere façade."

He'd known about Quinn. He had been playing me like I thought I'd been playing him. I stared at him in disbelief. His approval was something I never thought I would get in the beginning. To have earned it over time was better than I could have hoped for, but knowing he knew I'd been trying to deceive him confused me so very much.

"Why didn't you just tell me? I mean, I know you wanted to punish me but if you had told me I would killed him myself."

"I have told you before, though I don't think you believe me; I take no pleasure from your pain, I never have and never will." He looked out toward the clouded night sky as he continued. "I would have had to look you in the face and rip out your heart." He shook his head as if the thought was abhorrent to him. "Being angry with someone doesn't mean you still don't love them. You might have let me have my pound of flesh in the heat of that moment but you would have resented me always, so for me the choice was easy."

I hated to admit that he was right. Love and anger weren't mutually exclusive concepts, as he had pointed out so long ago.

"I could have killed you," I whispered horrified.

He shrugged. "You didn't," he replied, coming to sit on the side of the bed. "I showed you everything pertaining to my affairs and took out the policy because I do want you taken care of and I didn't want to wonder anymore. It…got harder and harder to endure with every passing day. Every time you touched me or smiled at me, every time we made love, I wanted it to be real. I would have rather gone to the true death with the semblance of your love than continued doubting you or accepting the truth it had never been."

He looked up at me, tormented, and the guilt of it, of knowing I had done that to him, solidified my belief that I didn't deserve him.

"Not all of it was real, not at first, but then I rested the day with you in my arms and that was how I woke. You told me you loved me and…" his voice faded and his face became stone cold. He looked unreachable. That was what he hid behind just asI hid behind anger.

"It had been different between us. We were better. I felt like you weren't just happier but that you'd also forgiven me."

Eric's face was still granite but the look in his eyes didn't change. He looked haunted, as if every moment of his thousand years was weighing on his soul. He was in pain. Once I would have reveled in that fact, but now, now I would do anything to take it away. There was nothing I could do but leave him because I was only a source of pain for him.

The room was silent for a few beats. Eric's hand didn't move from the line that he traced around the charm but he looked a million miles away. I wanted to apologize. I wanted to tell him I loved him but I knew it wouldn't make anything better. I remained quiet because I'd done enough. I'd lied, cheated, and hurt him. Nothing I could say would fix any of it.

Finally he abandoned the necklace and his hand rose towards my face, as if he was wary of making me shrink away, as if I could ever. His knuckles brushed my cheek in a touch that was barely there. It was so very gentle and had come to be so familiar. Once upon a time, this simple show of tenderness wasn't something I thought him capable of, but now I relished it. Over time it had become a source of comfort and happiness.

His voice was just as soft as his caress. "I don't know what else to do make you want to stay with me," he said. "But it doesn't matter anymore, I am willing to let you go now. I can be okay with that but not this, never this."

"I hurt you," I reminded him because he needed reminding.

"And I hurt you, badly," he replied. "And I am so very sorry."

I waved his apology aside. "I lied," I fired back, "I cheated with…" Words failed me. I couldn't believe I'd ever been so stupid.

"And I have forgiven you," he said. "I forgave you because it wasn't your fault, not really. I married you not caring you never wanted this, then I ignored you and pushed you away." He smiled; it was so tired and so very sincere. "We've both done our best to do the other the most harm."

He was right, at least in the last part of his statement. My marriage had been a lesson in heartbreak warfare, and I'd been the instigator who hid behind a mask of righteousness. I was so tired, I'd been so hurt, and I'd hurt him worse. The scars were all bared, still bleeding and raw but there was my husband, asking me to just move on.

We had done our best to make sure we did our worst. It felt like I'd fought a bloody war. It was a war that had lasted longer than I'd ever thought. I didn't even remember the cause. All that mattered was for some reason he had been branded the enemy and my cause was righteous so he was deserving of the acts of aggression be they direct, emotional, or mental. I just told myself he deserved it all. Everything was so wrong and so what he was offering was impossible.

Our past was too ugly, too battered, and much too broken. There was no going back or turning back time. The sad part was I wanted to, but I just didn't see how I could ever look him in the eye again. I didn't know how I could let him hold me or tell me he loved me when I knew I didn't deserve a fraction of it. I had begun this life with him branding him as a monster. That was no longer the case. It was me. I had counted us out before we even got started.

"We can't move past this," I said, with tears running down my face. "I love you Eric, with everything I am I love you, but I don't love me, I don't know me and I don't like me, not anymore and you deserve better than that, better than me."

* * *

**Closing A/N: I'm curious to see if Sookie has begun her path to redemption with you lovely readers yet. **


	35. Chapter 35

**A/N: Sometimes things have to go wrong in order to go right; sometimes the only way forward is to take a step back to the beginning but always when you love someone you have to be willing to set them free. If they return to you, then they're yours forever. **

* * *

**Eric **

**Epilogue**

Very few people in this world knew firsthand what it was like to feel so tainted that you felt damned, to be so broken you felt ruined. Forgiveness was something she never had to ask of me. It was given before she committed the offense. Yet, I couldn't make Sookie forgive herself; had I the power I would make her see this, but she had to see it on her own. I helped her pack. If she came back it had to be on her time and it had to be her choice.

I kissed her forehead and rested my chin on her head. "I will love you," I said, holding her to me. "When you are broken and empty I will love you still. Long after all you know all you hold dear has fallen into darkness and despair; my love will be all that remains. When the fires of Hell rise to torment you and the clouds of Heaven fall to shun you; when you have nothing and are nothing, not even then will my love cease to be."

Her tears soaked my shirt but I didn't let go or try to soothe her. Some aches had to be cured from the inside out. "I love you too," she murmured, burying her face in my chest. "I want to come back," she said.

"I know, _Lover_," I told her. "I know, and I want you to come back too. When you do, I'll be right here."

The option to remain my wife was the one thing I'd never offered her. A part of me had to admit I'd been afraid of what her choice would be. I wasn't anymore. With a heavy heart but a clear conscience, I watched Sookie drive away and with every mile that separated us I ached more. The pain wasn't because I would miss her though I very much would; it was for what she suffered. She was loyal, kind, caring, loving, and forgiving, but she wasn't as quick to turn those attributes inward. Until she learned to, even a little, she couldn't accept my love.

**~ooooo~**

Announcer:

"We are outside the Ritz Carlton in downtown Manhattan and it is absolute pandemonium as the first Vampire-Human power couple, Alexander Marinos and Rebecca Hastings, take their vows! Sources say the entire hotel has been rented; from the city sidewalks to the airspace above and every room in between! Security is airtight as the guests are ushered in for this momentous occasion. This comes months after a rumored split between renowned vampire and business mogul, Eric Northman, and longtime girlfriend, Sookie Stackhouse! His presence is confirmed as is that of the Princess of Darkness herself, Pamela Ravenscroft Northman! No word on Ms. Stackhouse…"

I took the remote and muted the television. "How can you watch this drivel?" I asked Pam earnestly.

"They were talking about me," she said, pulling back the remote from my hand with her mind.

Her new ability was nothing but yet another inventive way for her to be a pain in my ass! I never knew transferring telekinesis was possible but my sister had found a way before she died, and Pam would do nothing but irritate me with it for the rest of time.

"They're always talking about you," I mused. "Not that you don't give them cause."

Pam was my date for Alexander's wedding. While she was dressed beautifully, I hadn't any idea what had happened to her hair.

"A hundred and eighty years Pam," I muttered resigned. "And this is what you call a braid?"

I'd spent every day from the time she was ten until she was twenty trying to teach her. It didn't take. To this day she still couldn't braid for shit! I went over to her. It was time I accept that she was never going to care about it as much as I did.

"What? You don't like it?" she said. I had to laugh because she had the audacity to appear affronted.

She sat and a look of immense concentration fell over her pretty features as she focused her ability. No, her telekinesis didn't help. Her hair unraveled and wound itself back into the same loose uneven loaf of bread. Pulling my own elastic band from my hair I made her sit with her back to me. Then I attended that travesty.

"Some things never change," she said shrugging her dainty shoulders.

"No, they don't," I concluded, pulling her bun into a neat twist. I look toward the television and amended my statement. "Then again nothing ever really quite stays the same."

On the television screen images of me and my wife photographed at different events were displayed, as the reporter continued to speculate on a breakup. I missed her, every minute of every night of the four months she'd been gone. I didn't know where she was. I took comfort in knowing her Shadow Wraiths were with her and that she wanted to come back to me. For now, it was all I had and it had to be enough.

The wedding ceremony was very low key. The vampires Alexander commanded were in attendance as was the Vampire King of New York-Manhattan, and various humans whom Rebecca had invited. I stood with him, and Rebecca's sister stood at her side. They exchanged their vows, leaving out "till death do us part."

"Pam!" Andy called, once she spotted my child. "Hi, Way-Bin!"

Pam grinned. "You speak English...sort of," she replied.

"I speak Gweek too!" the little one chortled.

"Ah…I don't think 'Gweek' is a real thing," Pam said, taking her from her daemon guard. "So English is fine."

The pair walked off and I watched them go to the dance floor with a smile on my face. It was eerie. I could see myself in Pam's place and Pam in Andy's. She had been so small, but somehow fate had crossed her path with mine and trusted me to keep her safe. Somehow, despite all my doubts and fears of tainting her, I had managed. I was proud of the person I'd raised her to be. As she blew a kiss to Rebecca in full view of Alexander, I smiled and modified my assessment. Okay, I hadn't done such a bad job, all things considered.

"Hi."

I stilled as the full significance of that voice registered to all my senses. Her scent, the heat of her warmth in the air, the steady drumming of her heart, it was all there. My heart soared! My body yearned. Slowly, I turned to face her and it was as if she never left. Sookie stood behind me with a smile on her face.

We stared at each other, each drinking in the other after so much time apart. For four months I'd wondered if she was happy. I'd wanted so badly to charge in and soothe her if she wasn't, but I'd let her find herself. I'd waited patiently, trusting that she would find all that she needed to begin healing, for her to realize where she wanted to be and why.

The dress she wore was the one she wore on the day we wed, back when our union had meant nothing and she was nothing to me, nor I to her. While some things never changed, this had. I never realized how beautiful she'd been that day. I hadn't even known that the color of her dress matched her eyes and complimented her skin.

Back then, I couldn't see the swell of her breasts or the flare of her hips. I noticed she wore a necklace that was a favorite of mine. It was all diamonds, from end to end, even the clasps that fastened it. She rarely wore it because of its grandiose appearance, but today was worthy of it. She had included the matching bracelet and earrings as well.

"Hello," I replied, because I was too floored for anything more sophisticated.

She seemed to be struggling with her words and I simply waited patiently. "I don't know that I'll get it right," she began, looking up at me. "I don't know where to go from here but I'm ready for us to find out together."

Sookie was admitting that she didn't have all the answers but neither did I. That wasn't what was important. She had accepted the fundamentals of who she was, even the things she couldn't change. Old as I was, mistakes weren't something I lingered on. They were inevitable. All you could do was learn from them and move on. Sookie had finally forgiven herself. There was no more guilt and shame. She loved all the things about herself that had hurt her because made her who she now was, someone that she could be proud of. It made her see she was worth loving and so she was able to accept my love for her. It was all we needed to have a chance at building a new life together.

Sookie had been right when she told me we couldn't move past all that had happened between us. There was really no way. Pretending it hadn't happened would be covering the wound all over again. She hadn't been the only one that had to wrestle with her guilt and her demons. I did as well. The only thing I wanted more than to be with her was to never hurt her again.

No one could make such a promise no matter how cautious they were. She wasn't my child. She had to be my partner, my equal, and I had to tell her the truth be it good, bad, or ugly. I'd had to make my peace with the fact that it was impossible to shield her from any and everything unpleasant because it had cost us both too dearly.

My wife took a step out of the path of her Shadow Wraiths. They materialized and stood tight to her back as she walked to me. She waited for me to meet her halfway. That was all I needed to close the distance between us, not only physically but emotionally.

"I am Eric," I greeted holding my hand out. "I am a vampire. I'm partial to the color red, and I've been told that I have a man crush on Dracula and _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_."

Her eyes filled with tears but she was laughing. We were getting what so few got…a fresh start. I was going to give it a very literal meaning.

"Nice to meet you, Eric. My name is Sookie Stackhouse. I'm part-human, part-Fae. My favorite color is blue. My favorite guy is a Viking vampire and I think _Gone with the Wind_ is the best movie ever."

"The pleasure is mine," I murmured, sweeping her off her feet into my arms. She held onto me as tightly as she could.

This was how we should have met. When we danced and kissed, it should have been our first. It didn't matter how we got here, only that we'd found our way back into each other's arms. We had a past and it was ugly. We had a present that was being rebuilt so we could enjoy our future together. All I could do was love and support her as we faced the world together.

* * *

**Closing A/N:** I was tempted to write, 'And they lived happily ever after.' It was a development and learning experience for our favorite couple. Sure, they fell and scraped their knees but they got up and back into the fight. I for one feel lighter at the end of all this. They are together but taking it slow. I'm happy with this end…it leaves me room to do a sequel…who knows.

Muuuuuuuuaaaaaahhhhh!

ElfChef signing off...Until next time ladies and gentlemen!


End file.
